Kiss the Son

Kiss the Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Psalm 2:12

The second psalm is thoroughly Messianic, looking to a future kingship by a deliverer on the throne of David. This is, of course, Jesus. And this Messiah rules the world. His reign is characterized by:

• Useless opposition from all the kings of the earth (Psalm 2:1-3)
• Derisive amusement at the impotent unbelief of a world trying to reject His control (Psalm 2:4).
• Absolute rule from Zion that easily speaks the defeat of all opposition (Psalm 2:5-6),
• The King is the Son, given the ends of the earth as His heritage (Psalm 2:7-9).
• The worship and service of the nations as people turn to Him for refuge and rule (Psalm 2:10-12).

Lord Jesus,

I come to the King in grateful recognition that Your power… Your love… Your death and resurrection are the means of Your inescapable rule. Even now though nations rage against You, they cannot win. I choose, in faith, submission, and obedient love to kiss the Son, submit to Your rule and find delightful and enjoyable refuge in You as together we laugh at the feeble fools who dare to rage uselessly against the Son… the God of all power and authority in this world!

Amen

with man… but with God

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:26

Wrongs abound among us:

injustice,

suffering,

abuse,

destruction,

hate.

With man change is impossible.

Attempts to fix us fail:

education.

politics,

incarceration,

psychology,

science.

All achieve no real transformation.

Gospel hope lives with us:

Divine justice in

Christ’s suffering,

taking our punishment

for our correction

in His love.

With God all things are possible.

And Jesus will change us:

Learn from Him

our Lord.

Bind yourself to Him

soul and

body.

He brings us to God in actual transformation.

A story of mercy and grace

For their sake he remembered his covenant,

and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

Psalm 106:45

God of mercy and grace,

You have a history of mercy. You made a covenant with Your people Israel. And even though they disobeyed You so much You were still merciful even in judgment. You always kept Your covenant with them. Even now as I read through this history song this morning, I too know my own fickle heart. You made a new covenant through the blood of Jesus. And I entered in by faith to find mercy and forgiveness. Yet how like Israel I too have disobeyed! At times I long for Egypt. I too look at idols. I serve what is false. And I too displease You, defiling a new covenant. Yet, in Your mercy You discipline me and bring me back.

You have a history of steadfast love. Your grace pours in and compels this repentant heart in praise of the healing, forgiving gospel! You give me what a sinner never deserves. You clothe me in the righteousness of Your Son. You shower me with blessing. You adopt me as Your child. You place me in Your service. You call me to praise, honor, and the proclamation of the good news of Your Kingdom. Your grace overflows my dirty, broken cup of a life!

God of mercy and grace, I worship You with grateful praise. My history too, though full of my sinful wanderings is redeemed by mercy and by grace. Now this story is for Your glory!

Amen

agreeing with God for the sake of another

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

Matthew 18:19

Who are the “two of you” in this statement by Jesus? In context, they are disciples, followers of Jesus. Understanding the discourse in which this statement is made is very important. It is not a blanket statement about generic prayer. Jesus has given His followers authority to discipline, encourage, and rebuke sin amongst each other in order to resolve conflicts and settle disagreements. It is a weighty matter, but the goal is always to achieve unity among the body of believers and to win back an errant brother or sister in restoration of relationship (Matthew 18:15). In that process it might become necessary for two or three concerned believers to lovingly confont, filled with clarity and conviction, the person who sins. In context these two are in mind when it comes to this statement about prayer.

What do the “two” agree upon? Again, the context keeps theirs agreement on a matter of a sin-split relationship. The two agree on either an offense that is being ignored after caring conversation, or they agree that repentance and restoration have taken place. That agreement leads them to ask of God in prayer for the situation.

What does God promise to do? He promises to answer the prayer, either to draw an offending brother or sister to peace, to punish a calloused rejection, or to bless a repentant child of His with unity, love, and restorative grace. It appears that follow-up prayer like this is a necessary step in what is often called “church discipline”. The occasion to go to someone in this way is meant to draw believers together as they seek God’s will, restore a broken relationship, and plead for the gospel to do good work. All of this rests on the forgiveness found only in the gospel. And in answering prayers of such agreement, God gets the glory. Not only then do we agree with each other, but most importantly, we agree with God when we turn it all to Him.

shaming enemies, shining crowns

His enemies I will clothe with shame,

but on him his crown will shine.

Psalm 132:18

When King David moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem, one driving ambition of his was to find a place for the permanent temple of the Lord. David did not rest until Zion became that place. And he purchased that location at great cost, unwilling to force it from the previous owner by royal decree. David was seriously committed not just to personal worship, but for Israel, in covenant with God, to forever worship God in a beautiful temple worthy of His great name.

God, in turn, as sung here is Psalm 132, reiterates His special covenant with David and his generations. David’s enemies would be put to shame. David’s crown would always shine. And of course that crown indeed now radiates forever in the resurrected King of Kings and Lord of Lord, the Son of David — Jesus!

Lord Jesus,

I worship You and a countless multitude of saved souls shall worship You forever. Your crown forever shines… Your enemies forever shamed. And in that truth I now live. Yes, I encounter those people in my life who oppose You, to a degree they may oppose me for following You, and they sadly oppose the gospel. Yet You still reign. Nothing changes that! May I always glory in Your shining crown!

Amen

No fear in You alone

But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Matthew 17:7-8

Disciples saw You in

terrifying glory

fell down in fear

in that story

You appeared brighter

than noonday sun

and dazzling, scared

each of them

Moses and Elijah

by Your side

and in that moment

disciples tried

to misplace attention

upon other men

until the Father’s voice

corrected them

There Jesus stood

in the end

calming their fear

being their friend

seeing Jesus only

awareness grew

that You were much more

than they first knew

I look upon You

as pages seem to glow

with that same glory

from so long ago

my fears may fell me

yet You have shown

there is no fear

in seeing You alone

I always need the God of salvation.

Our God is a God of salvation,

and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.

Psalm 68:20

On a day in which I will be reflecting on the price Jesus paid to redeem me, I am most profoundly aware of my sin and my brokenness. I am my biggest problem. I am at the heart of my pain. I need a God of salvation. I need a deliverer from death. 

I am forgiven in Christ. I know this. Yet I am still so painfully aware of my need for the gospel. I need to confess sin and cling to a Savior. I need a God of salvation. I need a deliverer from death. Yes, I know I said that just a few sentences ago. But I feel it deeply today as I look at Jesus and anticipate weeping before His cross with His people this Good Friday.

I feel my deep, sinful brokenness acutely today. His Spirit brought me low yesterday, painfully fallen by my thoughtless sins. My broken sin shows up in me in these ways regularly:

• Self-absorbed thinking. Me! Me! Me! What about me! Look at me! Give me what I want! Like Bob Wiley “I need! I need!” I Pharisaically project that I am self-discipled to put others first, but even those efforts can have a wicked bent to secretly be recognized for my “selflessness”. What a fraud I often am! I am disgusting in my self-absorption.
• Inconsiderate actions toward others. I am too easily driven by my wants — “Do I look good?” “What will others think of ME?” “How can I gain attention?” “I’ll do this because others will see it.” And I will fly right past the needs of others in my hot pursuit for the spotlight. I am quite aware that occasionally there is a trail of “hit and run” victims behind me.
• Broken relationships. I have several. I kid myself thinking that the hurts are the problems of others and that they just need to “grow up and get over it”. Jesus reconciled me (born the enemy of God) to the Father. I focus on that this Good Friday. He wants me to reconcile to others. He calls me to humbly confess how I break things with people and I need to own this. The cross has the power to break my relationship-breaking bent. Will I humbly ask others to forgive this in me?
• Disappointment with myself. Like Paul I too often moan “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death!” My sin (not the sins of other people) is what leads to my unhappiness. Why do I wait until I am miserable to see this? I need to focus on the continuous saving work of Jesus and the day-to-day transforming sanctification and growth Jesus wants to do in me as I daily reflect, repent, seek Word wisdom, follow the Spirit’s direction, and humble this proud old self!

Seeing my Savior bear the agony of Calvary so that I might be delivered calls me right now to fresh awareness of my need to repent, entrust my soul to Christ, and show Jesus in this old, broken, weary man. I fall before His cross anticipating resurrection.

O Lord! Have mercy on me a sinner!

The One Who is our Judge

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Matthew 16:27

This matter-of-fact promise from Jesus about His second coming has a powerful build-up meant to get our attention on ALL of Who Jesus is. The context of Matthew 16 leads to making this statement from Jesus echo with authority and power.

First (Matthew 16:1-4), some insistent Pharisees and Sadducees, who had seen numerous miracles in Jesus’ ministry and fought with Him over them, came to Jesus demanding that He provide some miraculous sign to show His heavenly authority. Jesus chided them for their earthly viewpoint, told them only the “sign of Jonah” (a reference to His three days in a tomb) would be their sole sign, and literally walked away from them. I am sure they were not happy, what with Jonah being a book about Gentiles coming to faith in the true God and a call to repentance by a disappointed legalistic Jew.

Jesus then warns His men to avoid the dangerous, destructive legalism of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 16:5-12). Their teachings were the “things of men” and led people away from the good news. And what was the good news?

The third section (Matthew 16:13-20) has Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah. Jesus affirms this truth of His clear identity. And then He builds on it, contrasting it with the very human viewpoints of His identity.

The fourth part (Matthew 16:21-23) is Jesus’ clear prediction of His upcoming death and resurrection in Jerusalem. When Peter chides Him for this, Jesus rebukes Peter for having in mind the “things of men”. After this clear communication of His mission, the final part of Matthew 16 is a call to discipleship (Matthew 16:24-28). Those who reject an earthly view of Jesus follow the Messianic Deliverer and sacrificial savior with all their lives! That is where this revelation of Jesus as final Judge of all human destiny is revealed.

The One Who is the very sign from heaven is our Judge. The One Who is God’s anointed Deliverer is our Judge. The One Who died to forgive us and was raised from the dead to grant us life forever is our Judge. The One we follow with our lives now will soon return to repay all people for their actions. 

Searcher of my paths

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Psalm 139:3

O God Who knows me,

How I need comfort in knowing that You know where I am, what I am, how I am, who I am, when I am, and why I am! My days can feel so shaky and uncertain sometimes. I wake up filled with hope and then lie in my bed at night discouraged. Or, I barely roll out of bed in the morning, unmotivated to start my day, and somehow You turn it all around. All I know is this: I do not know the path I will take. But You do. And I have to trust what You know and how You will lead me.

You know every step I will take today. You give me each breath I will take. You will sustain me. You will ordain every mile of this road. So I will trust in what You know, look for how You will lead, and wait for what You want to give me.

Like David I observe that Your wisdom and sovereign control are not just facts, but cause for worship. What You know about me and what You do for me is too wonderful for me to express or even comprehend. Your ways are higher and I will not attain them (Psalm 139:6). I can only look, trust, and worship. And so I entrust today to the Searcher of my paths.

Amen

need in a broken world

Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him…

Matthew 15:29-30a

Everywhere that Jesus went, the great need of the great crowd followed Him. He went into primarily Gentile territory (Tyre and Sidon) and had ministry to an insistent Canaanite woman who had heard of Him, believed He could heal, and begged Him to heal her sick daughter (Matthew 15:21-28). Jesus gave grace to her.

Jesus traveled back into Galilee, the tone of the text reading like He really needs some restorative rest… walking along the lakeshore, hiking into the hills… and even there the crowds found Him. He climbed to the top of the mountain. The determined crowds sat down with Him, desperate as they brought along the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, the hurting, the helpless, and the oppressed. And every one of the broken people were healed by a weary Jesus. The result was that worship erupted as God displayed His love and power in His Son (Matthew 15:31).

There is always need in a broken world. It was all around Jesus, anywhere that He went. It is all around us today at any place we may go. And that need will only be met in Christ. It will only end when He ends it through healing souls and lives by His gospel. It will FINALLY end when He Who has defeated death and sin returns to rule this world, judge the living and the dead, and recreate this broken universe in a new heavens and a new earth. Healing sick people on a hillside was just a fraction of the wonder of my God! He will remake an entire universe again! He makes all things new and whole! He is actively restoring broken things… even me. I can’t wait to see what will come!

“It is I.”

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

Matthew 14:27

When the winds blew

and the waves raised

I saw You

yet I was afraid

You were drawing near

to comfort me

but in my fear

I could not see

Still You reached out Your hand

as You drew nigh

I rose to stand

as You said “It is I”.

“Take heart,” You spoke

to my trembling soul

into my stormy boat

Your peace did flow

The winds ceased

the waves did too

as Your great peace

filled me through

No longer afraid

I trust in You

for You have said

You’ll see me safely through.

delivered from the prison of a cave

Bring me out of prison,

that I may give thanks to your name!

The righteous will surround me,

for you will deal bountifully with me.

Psalm 142:7

David wrote these words while hiding out from Saul’s wrath in a cave. And that cave at times felt like a prison. He longed to be a free man. He longed for God to keep His promise to him. But until then the cave would also become a sanctuary… a place to worship, to cry out, to trust God, and to wait.

David modeled this worship in difficult times in this way throughout the 142nd psalm:

• He lamented and prayed, unafraid to express his emotion to God (Psalm 142:1-2).
• He trusted that God knew his condition and had a plan for Him (Psalm 142:3).
• David felt alone and hunted (Psalm 142:4).
• He trusted God as a refuge, not just the physical environment of the cave (Psalm 142:5).
• David threw all his weakness and inability on a mighty God by faith (Psalm 142:6).

Eventually David’s cave would fill with hope, support, and power. God would bring “mighty men” his way to help him. The cave became a war room. And they too would hide with him until God brought an end to Saul and then exalted David as king. And when that happened, David was not alone anymore, crying in a cave or imprisoned by injustice. God clearly answered the prayer He heard from David in a cave!

Generations later, God would not abandon the Son of David in a cold cave of a tomb. He would resurrect Jesus to be King of Kings! And He who turns caves into war rooms will do the same for those imprisoned by a temporary cold cave!

the danger of only seeing one side of Jesus

“Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? … Where did this man get all these things?”

Matthew 13:54, 56

There is a grave danger in seeing Jesus from only one side. Such is the case with Jesus’ neighbors in Nazareth. They knew Jesus… but they could not accept that He was anything more than just a guy from their hometown. What they knew about Jesus, captured in the phrase “this man” shows their exclusive focus on just His humanity:

• an astonishingly articulate rabbi whose teaching was heard in their synagogue.
• the son of the carpenter.
• the son of Mary.
• the brother of James, Joseph, Simon, Judas, and sisters.

Yet those four facts were where their belief about Jesus stopped. They could relate to the human Jesus… the amazing teacher… the son of their town… and even a worker of unexplained wonders. But they failed to see His wisdom as God’s wisdom or His miracles as God’s work. The human Jesus alone will never be the true Jesus. He demands more than an earthly origin story. Jesus requires an acceptance of His divine reality as the Son of God and Lord of His people.

Many are all too comfortable right now with a human Jesus. He spoke powerful words of peace and understanding. He identifed with the outcasts and the downtrodden. He accepted those who came to Him. He was gentle and was greatly misunderstood. But His life was much more than that simplistic human assessment of Him! 

The ones who truly misunderstood Him, including those who only saw Him as a Nazarene citizen, misunderstood that He was sent from God to redeem the world from sin. They reject His gospel mission by only looking at His human side. Jesus was no mere activist. He is instead, the very God of heaven, a Savior, our Lord, God in the flesh demanding our worship and our action in His call to follow Him, to live like Him, to be transformed by Him, and to call this world to repent and believe in the God-man Jesus Christ our Lord!

of trees and treasures

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.

Matthew 12:33

Jesus spoke these words about the Pharisees immediately after they accused Him of having power over demons only because Satan had empowered Him. This was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And it was a great evil… one that Jesus said put them at extreme peril on judgment day for their calloused hearts.

Jesus goes on to say that such words could only proceed from corrupt hearts (Matthew 12:34-35). He began His discourse on human motivation with this picture of two trees. A good tree is known as good because from it comes good fruit. Likewise a bad tree is deemed worthless and fit for destruction when it produces fruit that is bad. He then gives an even deeper picture of the treasure chest of the inner person (Matthew 12:35-36). A good person brings good treasure from the righteousness in his heart that he treasures. And an evil person’s dark treasure chest can only bring out evil. A life filled with evil will be miserable, hateful, and never satisfied. Only a heart transformed by Christ can bring out good.

Lord,

Help me understand and evaluate my heart by life fruit and the treasures that come out of my heart. I want to make the tree good as You transform me. I want my treasures to be Your treasures, truth and life that lasts for eternity. Teach me, lead me, heal me, and bless me thus, Lord!

Amen

defended

But you, O GOD my Lord,

deal on my behalf for your name's sake;

because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!

Psalm 109:21

David wrote these words of confident trust as he processed horrible mistreatment by people who should have cared about him. The psalm is heavy on lament and calls God to justice. It does not necessarily suggest a specific occasion for its composition, but I could see David having these thoughts during Absalom’s revolt, when civil war drove David from the throne and many people turned against him. Look at how David describes his mistreatment and see if you can’t identify with it:

• People spread lies about him (Psalm 109:2).
• He is attacked without mercy (Psalm 109:3).
• People that he loves accuse him (perhaps this is his own son?) (Psalm 109:4-5).
• Actions toward David are unkind (Psalm 109:16).
• There is no mercy or empathy for David’s broken heart (Psalm 109:16).
• Curses are called down upon David (Psalm 109:17-18).

David is affected by all this accusation and hatred directed at him. Look at how he feels:

• He is the poor and needy one in the psalm (Psalm 109:22).
• He feels wasted and weak (Psalm 109:23-24).
• He is scorned socially, feeling alone and rejected by people in general (Psalm 109:25).

But David trusts God beyond the intensity and immensity of the hate directed at him. He clings to God’s steadfast love, trusts that God will in the end show His power, believes God can turn their curses into His blessings, and trusts God to put sinful accusers to shame (Psalm 109:26-28).

In the end, even if others hate us, ridicule us, reject us, or cancel us, those who trust Christ will be vindicated… for He Who is at the Father’s right hand defends the right hand of those who need Him (Psalm 109:31)!

fear uncovered

So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

Matthew 10:26

My soul fears much more than I care to admit and much of my fear is around what other people do. I am at my heart a fearer of people. This shows up in the way I want everyone around me to like me, to be happy, to agree, and treat me the way I think I should be treated. I never want anyone to think bad of me. It is a perverse kind of selfishness that centers my happiness on pleasing others and judging what they think, not about Jesus so much, but what they think about me. This is fear. It is not good for me to do this.

Often a good day quickly goes bad when I do not get the response I think I should from people. I turn sad or sullen or angry or judgmental or often just a mix of all sorts of dark negativity. It is what fear does to me when I choose it. And it will keep me up at night, ruin my days, steal my joy, and pull my heart from the love and worship of my Lord.

This is why I need Jesus to confront and calm my fears as directly as He does in Matthew 10. I am most afraid when I cannot understand why people act the way they do toward me. But God knows hearts, not me. He will, in His time, as promised here, take care of every selfish or hateful motive from others against me. AND He also uncovers my own selfish fears, making them known by His Spirit’s use of His Word so that in His revealing light I can confront my sinful fear and my own judgmentalism of others, acknowledge my faithlessness, and then properly broken by my sinful failure… I repent!

Lord,

This light upon my fear is exactly what I needed as a reminder for today. Thanks for Your timely wisdom. Uncover my fear and expose my heart by Your Spirit and Your Word. Make me uncomfortable about my sin, and stop me from the idolatry of pleasing others! Uncover my conflicted soul! Make Your power known!

Amen

self trapped

Let the wicked fall into their own nets,

while I pass by safely.

Psalm 141:10

Fallen in a pit

dug to trap another

hanging from a rope

meant to catch a brother

what the wicked plan

in the ways of man

we can understand

God will bring their end

using their own traps against them

Consequences follow

every evil scheme

God can turn against

the wicked what they originally mean

to hurt, wound, or kill

will never thwart God’s will

God will overrule

using their very evil tool

in irony to destroy them

Trapped in their own net

they don’t trust God and yet

God in mercy shows them

how to repent and turn to Him

they can still turn away

from self and no longer stray

He would always take them back

and deliver them from their trap

if by faith they would trust in Him

intense ministry

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

Matthew 9:35

Jesus really had an intense ministry. It is like nothing else we read of in the Bible. Matthew’s summary description of it here shows a four-fold work taking place:

1.  Jesus traveled to cities and villages. He was always on the move, taking His ministry and message to new places. He was sent to a people (Israel) and connected with them by going to where they were.

2.  Jesus taught in the synagogues. He worshiped with those to whom He was called. And as a rabbi, Jesus was allowed to teach at their gatherings. He operated within the means of worship and instruction that everyone expected.

3.  Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom. He had a new message of hope. He proclaimed salvation to Israel. He pointed the people to Himself and a new way of God transforming hearts that only His work would bring.

4.  Jesus healed diseases and afflictions. People were physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually afflicted. Jesus had mercy and authority over sickness and demonic possession. He healed in order to show that power and authority. And it was no doubt His miracles that brought the crowds to Him as He did what only God could do.

All of this intense ministry was fueled by an authentic and unique love for the crowds… something the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did not display. He saw the crowds as harassed and helpless, in need of a gentle shepherd (Matthew 9:36). And Jesus would call all His disciples to love and to serve with kingdom intensity like He did (Matthew 9:37). May His church today carry on with authentic intensity as Jesus continues to empower and enable us to travel, teach, preach, and see Him heal lives!

singing praises in the pressure

…for you have been my help,

and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

Psalm 63:7

One biblical strategy for not being overwhelmed by stress and anxiety is to truly worship God. Psalm 63 was written in a stressful time for David as he fled from Saul in the wilderness of Judah. There was an entire army bent upon following Saul’s orders. They wanted to “destroy” David’s life (Psalm 63:9). David had reason to fear but chose to fight fear in faithful worship of God.

David acknowledged that his circumstances INCREASED his thirst for God (Psalm 63:1). So an immediate action when given to fear is to see how the painful circumstances call out for desperate faith. Crave God when you feel like caving in to fear!

That thirsty craving led to expressive worship engaging David spiritually and physically. His eyes looked upon God to behold His power and glory. His lips praised God for His steadfast love. His hands were lifted up in praise (Psalm 63:2-4). Choose to fight fear with your whole person — soul and body!

David directed his soul to remember God… even in nights when it was hard to sleep (Psalm 63:5-8). He remembered God as he turned in his bed. He made those nights time to worship and to meditate upon the God Who satisfied him, sheltered him, and held him up in the stress-filled story. He chose to make sleeplessness worshipful.

The last word for David in response to anxious stress was this: “,,,the king shall rejoice in God.” Worship in the hard times can have its own unique joys… if we will only discipline our souls to see them and choose to embrace the gift of songs in such stresses.

Jesus the Healer

This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

Matthew 8:17

Mark 8 emphasizes Jesus as the Healer. A simple survey of the chapter yields these insights about how He heals:

• Jesus heals a leper - Emphasis: Jesus wills it so (Mark 8:1-4).
• Jesus heals a centurion’s servant - Emphasis: Jesus has authority at a distance (Mark 8:5-13).
• Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law - Emphasis: Jesus meets needs before we even ask (Mark 8:14-15).
• Jesus casts demons from many - Emphasis: Jesus fulfills scripture (Mark 8:16-17).
• Jesus calms a storm - Emphasis: Jesus commands the physical world (Mark 8:23-27).
• Jesus heals two demon-possessed men - Emphasis: Jesus commands the spiritual world (Mark 8:28-34)

Lord Jesus, 

You are the Great Healer. You have borne all our hurts, our sorrows, our pains, and our illnesses. You have the will to restore us and make us whole. You have all the authority so that nothing… not time, distance, our emotional responses, our fears, or any opposition can change what You will to do for us or what You will for us to be. You see the need we have before we even come to You. You fulfill all that has spoken in scripture concerning You. You command the forces of nature. You command even demons to flee from us.

There is nothing broken that you cannot fix. There is no distance You cannot by grace and power bridge. There is no evil stronger than Your power to command it to cease. My life then is Yours to heal. My broken relationships are Yours to renew. My anxious and weary heart is Yours to calm and mend. My oppressive circumstances are Yours to break. My storms are Yours to still. You are always my Healer!

Amen