Today’s passage is Matthew 8:1-13.
Coming down from the mountain, Jesus heals a leper and tells him to keep it a secret until he gives his testimony to a priest. A centurion asks for help for his servant.
When Jesus says he will go to him, the centurion tells him that saying the word alone will heal the servant. Jesus is astonished at the centurion’s faith and uses it to lecture others.
Soon after my conversion I took my family to church and had the children baptized.
We joined a small group.
My first wife and I read many books about people’s experience with God.
At this time I learned to give thanks to God for the good things and the bad incidents in my life, saying, “Praise the Lord!” for them.
At first I thought that doing this, saying those words, didn’t make any sense.
But my life before I accepted Jesus made even less sense, so I did it.
One day my three year old son touched the electric stove burner.
Because I was getting ready to put a pot on it to cook, the burner was a pretty orange color, which meant it was extremely hot.
My son put his hand on the burner. I took it off immediately and said, “Praise the Lord!” and ran cold water over his hand in the sink.
We said "Praise the Lord!" together.
In the past I had accidently touched electric burners and the painful wound took weeks to heal.
My son’s hand had only a small mark but he felt no pain.
In the morning his hand was completely healed. This is not an isolated incident.
Throughout my early church life, so many wounds on me and my family members were healed almost instantly by our attitude of giving thanks and praising the Lord.
Remembering this incident made me think about the long years of my suffering after my first wife’s death.
By that time in my life I had almost lost my habit of thankfulness and praising the Lord for good things and bad.
I hadn’t completely lost it but just about.
So when disaster fell upon me, I complained loudly and deeply instead of giving praise. I think that if I had remembered my first love, my years of suffering would not have been so long.
Obeying God and marrying Jin Kyeong led me to Wooridle where I have been blessed in recovering my first love of giving thanks and praising the Lord. Thank you, Lord!
O Lord, please give me the centurion’s mind of trusting obedience and let me always praise your holy name.
