April 2, 2020
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, I greet and bless everyone in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. The blessed word that God has given for you today is from the book of Matthew 17:17 “ O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you ? How long shall I bear with you. Bring him here to Me.”
The above passage picturises a lesson on faith and power. This incident happened on the day after the transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Jesus and his three disciples had gone up to the mount of transfiguration. And they were coming down to rejoin the others. There was a crowd at the bottom of the mount waiting to meet Jesus. Just then a man cried out to Him. He was pleading Jesus to heal his son. He said that his son, was an epileptic and suffers severely. He said to Jesus, that his son, often falls into the fire and often into the water. Mark, in his Gospel speaks of his foaming mouth, grinding teeth rigid body and not being able to speak. Luke mentions his crying out, convulsions bruises and so on. The boy was actually demon possessed. He had an evil spirit that tried to kill him by causing him to fall into the fire and into the water.
Jesus had given to his twelve disciples the power to overcome unclean spirits, and to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of diseases. But in this particular case the disciples could not, drive out the demon. Hence the man tells Jesus very that he approached his disciples but they couldn’t cure the boy. Then Jesus answered and said the above statement. “ O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall be with you. How long shall I bear with you?” Then Jesus moved with compassion towards the boy, rebuked the evil spirit out of his body. Immediately the boy was cured. Jesus restored him and set him free from his bondage.
Some of you like this boy must be suffering from some kind of bondage. You might have tried different ways and means, to overcome this bondage. But may not have succeeded. And hence you might be in a dilemma as to what you should do about it. The Bible says, then they shall call and the Lord shall hear, they shall cry, and He shall say, here I am.
Which means the Lord is ready to answer your call. The Lord says, when they call on Me I will answer. I will be with them in trouble I will be with them and deliver them. When you have such a wonderful God, the Lord Jesus, why don’t you turn to him and be healed. For God says, “For I am the Lord who heals you.” Do not delay, This is the day of salvation, Or this is the time of favour. So turn to him and be healed. God bless you.
Prayer: Our loving heavenly Father, we thank You for this blessed day. Lord help us to realize your power of healing. Teach us to exercise our faith in a useful manner. Give us the strength to overcome all our weaknesses. Help us to walk in wisdom. Thank you Lord for healing us and setting us free from bondage.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
