MY ALLERGY REALITY

My lungs had orchestrated yet another mutiny.  Once again I was having my yearly bronchitis challenge.   I knew the routine: doctor's office, pharmacy, medicine, rest and feel all better in a few days.  I was in my thirties and I was still under the egotistical delusion that the world could not run without me.  Because of that I thought the Universe at large was picking on me when it required me to slow down and get better. One year, things were not routine.  Two days after beginning my penicillin regimen I broke out in a rash.  My doctor suspected I may have developed an allergy to penicillin.  (This proved true a year later when I was prescribed a penicillin based medicine... and six hours later was in the emergency room with a fat tongue and closing throat.) 

This new and sudden allergy reality fascinates me to this day.  How could a medicine that had always HEALED me become a medicine that would KILL me?
I don't know about the cause.  I just know about the effect.  Penicillin worked in the past.
That was then. This was now.

It got me thinking about my actions as a Christian.  I want to be used as an instrument of peace and healing in God's hands.  I truly do. I always have.

But sometimes, I have been bull headed about just forging ahead with the medicine I had always used... not being willing to let God tell me that He wanted me to use a different and new approach for this particular person at this time.
 To offer a new prescription that would heal someone rather harm.

What's the purpose of medicine if it doesn't heal the patient?

So I'd just ram some Bible verses in to someone's brain...because I'd seen other people do that.. because that's what I thought they needed..because Scripture is what God often used to heal me...  when in truth, the medicine that would have truly healed some people would have been for me to be quiet and let them speak about their pain.  An honest hug would have healed more than a holy homily. 

I'm NOT advocating we should change the message. HEAVEN FORBID.
I'm just saying we should change the medicine to meet the patient's need.
Millions of people are healed every day by taking penicillin. But not me.
 
If you are someone who wonders WHY you just cannot get with the program, get up and get healed and get going, maybe you aren't getting the right medicine. 

• I pray for you that the Holy Spirit will send someone in to your life who is willing to be LIFE to you and not mere words.

• I pray that God Himself will speak to your heart to remind you that if you have put your trust in His Only Son, Jesus.. that YOU HAVE BECOME the VERY RIGHTEOUSNESS of Christ.  

• I pray that you will believe that God is CLOSE to the BROKENHEARTED and to those who are crushed in spirit.

• I pray you will search the Scripture for yourself - AND - that God will use to reveal His heart to you.

• I pray that you will understand that it isn't by chance that you are reading this, but that God has ordained it so that you will know that He sees you. He sees you. He sees you.  And He is going to heal you.  He is going to send the prescription you need to be healed.

Maybe we need to acknowledge the allergy reality.. that some people have grown allergic to the Church's tried and true methods.. and for those people we need to be the balm that heals them. Maybe meeting someone for a cup of coffee at Starbucks is the medicine they need instead of insisting they come to Weds night Bible study.  Does Weds Bible study help millions of people? Of course.  But it may not be the prescription for THAT person God has sent in to YOUR life.  Are we allowed to BE the church outside the Church building?  Can we help someone who is in pain and also miss a scheduled church service?  Remember how the Pharisees were more concerned about the day of the week that Jesus healed someone (The Sabbath) than they were about the fact that JESUS HEALED SOMEONE.

BE HEALING to someone who needs JESUS.
Jesus is the only way to be healed.
It takes time.
It takes prayer.
It takes love.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 

1 Corinthians 4:20