I love to read the simple story of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. I wonder how many people pass it by, or think nothing of it, because of how little space it takes up in the Bible. I have long since learned some of the most powerful messages in the Bible for me come in the fewest of words. Such is the case with this healing that would be so easy to overlook. After all, much in the Bible takes up so much more space. In the case of this so brief story, it is not the healing that stands out to me. It’s what Peter’s mother-in-law does after her healing. And it makes me wonder yet again, what do we do after ours?
When Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, he simply touches her hand. Her fever is immediately gone. What an interesting way to heal a fever, right? Wouldn’t that be the obvious focal point for a discussion of this healing? Or, wouldn’t it make the most sense to move forward to Jesus’ next healing in the Bible? Or to His next great message? Onward, right? Not so!
Look at the response of Peter’s mother-in-law. Does she run off to make plans for a celebration? Does she go back to sleep to get more rest? Does she hurry to the telephone, or the Internet, to contact her girlfriends to say she feels better? Does she make an appointment to get her nails done? Okay, maybe back then she wouldn’t have done most of this. But surely she would have at the very least tried to catch up with her life in one way or another. Okay, maybe she would have gone off to the synagogue to worship.
What did she do? She SERVED! Oh, how this stands out to me! Every time I read this little story, this stands out to me! What does she do after her healing? She ministers, which means “to serve”. She does not use her healing to serve herself. She celebrates her healing by serving others.
If we are honest with ourselves, how many of us want to be healed so we can go back to our lives, to our dreams, to our loved ones, to our activities, to our events, to our plans, to ourselves? How many of us, when we receive God’s healing, get on with HIS dreams for our lives, to loving others, to His activities and events He has planned for us to participate in, to His plans, and most importantly of all, to HIM?
How many of us celebrate our healing by serving Him? Pretty convicting, eh? It is for me.
“And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. 15And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.” Matthew 8:14-15 KJV
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