Matthew 8:14-15

Here in chapter 8, Matthew records many miraculous works that Jesus did — cleansing lepers, healing a paralyzed servant, and delivering many who were demon-possessed. All of these people are in desperate need, but in the middle of those accounts, Matthew writes of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law who we are told “was sick with a fever.” Dr. Luke writes in his Gospel that she had “a high fever.” So Jesus takes her hand, heals her, and she gets up and starts making lunch for them. This wasn’t done in front of the crowds that followed Jesus and we aren’t told that she was “sick unto death”, she was just sick and Jesus healed her.

It should encourage us to pray and allow God to be involved in every part of our lives. We have a tendency to pray and seek the Lord when things get really bad, when we encounter an illness that is severe. But when we wake up with a headache, we go right to the medicine cabinet for the Tylenol. Now there is nothing wrong with taking medicine, but why not pray?

He cares about every part of our lives, the big things and the little. So we should pray without ceasing, giving God the opportunity to glorify Himself in our weakness and at the same time, to build our trust in Him.

Pastor Doug Hardin