Bayside Baptist Church

Jason King: Did you know that snake oil is a real product? It was a traditional Chinese medicine that was brought to the United States in the 1800s by thousands of Chinese migrants who came to the country to work on the transcontinental railroad. They brought their families, their traditions, their culture, and their medicines. One of the medicines that came with these folks from China was an oil called snake oil, which was actually extracted from Chinese water snakes and used to treat arthritis and joint pain.

As word of this oil and its healing powers began to spread, Americans thought, "How can we make our own snake oil here in the United States?" There are no Chinese water snakes here, so instead, they used rattlesnakes to make their own version of snake oil. Clark Stanley was the first to successfully capitalize on this. He traveled across the United States dressed up as a cowboy and held shows in front of a crowd where he would take a rattlesnake, slice it open, and throw it in boiling water. When the oils from the reptile bubbled up to the surface, he would scoop them up and people would line up for days to purchase this product.

But there was a problem. This product did not actually contain any snake oil. As a matter of fact, in 1917, there was a federal investigation into his company and they found that the snake oil, as it was marketed, contained primarily mineral oil, a fatty oil they believed to be from beef, and a couple of other ingredients like chili peppers, turpentine, and camphor. He was charged with fraudulent marketing and he was fined. Since then, when you hear the word snake oil, we think of something that is a scam or something that is fake.

What do you think when you hear about someone who has been miraculously healed? Healed from a sickness that defies medical explanation or medical proof? They claim it was a miracle. They were sick, and now they are not. That is what the scans show. The prognosis went from sick to healed. What do you think? What is your reaction? Are you skeptical? Do you look for a more rational explanation? Do you say, "I've heard that happens in foreign countries, but it doesn't happen here today. We don't really need that. We have medicine instead."

After all, isn't it true that in our day, we have trouble believing something if we can't explain it? If we can't prove it through scientific method or verify it with empirical evidence, we believe that it can't be so. We become doubtful, skeptical, or maybe even dismissive of the miraculous. Yet throughout the pages of scripture, throughout the words in the Bible, there are pictures of and stories where the miracle of healing takes place. The sick are healed, the dead are raised, and the impossible becomes reality.

Miracles surround the work of God both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Jesus tells his followers—he says to you and me—that there were some amazing things that happened while he walked on this earth, but there are greater things that we will do once he is gone. He tells us that we need to ask, seek, and knock, and it will be answered, it will be found, and it will be opened for you. But don't we struggle to believe that? Does anyone else struggle to believe that could be the case for your circumstance?

Yet today, I believe that God wants to grow your faith and open your heart to the miraculous. In Mark Chapter 5, there is an account as Mark records what is happening in the life and ministry of Jesus. There are two hopeless situations that Jesus encounters in the passage we're going to look at today, and he responds in the midst of each of those circumstances with a miracle. Over and over in the gospels, especially in the gospel of Mark, we see the work of the miraculous through Jesus.

Throughout all four gospels and into the book of Acts, the miraculous takes place and people are healed from sickness and disease. God seems to do the impossible often. So I want to ask you before we jump in: I don't know what your road to get to this moment is, I don't know what your background is or what your beliefs are, but do you believe that God still heals miraculously today?

If you struggle with that, I believe that what we're going to see today is that the scriptures teach that you should believe that God can still heal miraculously. Now, he doesn't heal every time we ask, but I've seen healing take place with my own eyes. Some of you in here today have experienced God's healing power. We live in this tension and this reality of a broken world and a fallen world, and yet the scriptures teach us that God does sometimes heal here and now.

He doesn't always bring physical healing, but sometimes he does. If you're in Christ, the ultimate hope that we look forward to is that one day, whether Christ returns or whether you pass from this life, you will receive ultimate healing. But the scriptures teach us that we can see God do the miraculous even here and now. God can heal physically. I believe Jesus can respond in the midst of even the most hopeless situation when we ask for help.

So what do you do if right here today you need healing? If you have a loved one or somebody close to you, or maybe even in your own life? I believe there are some steps that you need to take that this passage teaches us. The first thing I want you to see is this: you need to ask for what you need. It seems simple and clear, but that's what takes place in this passage. Ask for what you need, be clear, and be direct.

Look in Mark Chapter 5, beginning in verse 21. It says this: "Jesus got into the boat again and he went back to the other side of the lake where a large crowd had gathered around him on the shore. Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him. 'My little daughter is dying,' he says. 'Please come and lay your hands on her. Heal her so that she can live.'"

You get the picture here. Jairus was the leader of a local synagogue, which means he was the one responsible for supervising worship. He was running the weekly school and caring for the building. He was a leader in the Jewish faith. Most likely he was a Pharisee. If you know anything about Jesus's background and the story of the gospels, the Pharisees and Jesus were like oil and water. They did not mix or sync up together. But all that aside, in this moment, he's a dad who needs help for his little girl who is sick.

His daughter is dying. Nobody else can help. Nobody else can do anything. Maybe he's heard about Jesus. No doubt Jesus has just healed a demon-possessed man right before this. Maybe he's heard the stories. There's no doubt that it circulated throughout the land like wildfire that this guy could heal people—that he spoke a word or he touched people and they were healed. So Jairus comes to Jesus, desperate, asking for help, and Jesus goes with him.

But I want you to notice that Jairus comes to Jesus and he asks. Don't move past that. When you need healing, when you're sick, or when someone you love needs healing, you need to go to the doctor and do the help and treatment that they provide. But you need to start with asking God for help. Start with prayer and start moving towards God in that moment. But I want you to see what he does to move towards God. When he gets to Jesus, he falls down at his feet.

He goes from his feet onto his knees and he's pleading fervently. This was a symbol of humility. It's why we pray from our knees. I don't know if you've ever tried it before, but if you've never tried it, I challenge you the next time that you pray to get down on your knees and pray. It's a symbol of humility. You're bowing your knees and saying, "God, I need you. I'm desperate. I need your help." It's why we open up our palms when we pray. It's symbolic of saying, "Lord, I'm releasing this to you. I'm desperate for your help. I receive whatever you're going to do."

He implored earnestly. He was desperate. He's crying out for help. He's acknowledging by getting on his knees and pleading with Jesus that there's nothing that he can do. "Please, God, my little girl is dying." This is not one of the prayers that we usually pray where we just quietly say, "Amen." No, he gets on his knees. He's crying out. He's not saying, "Dear God, if it be your will, it sure would be nice if you're not too busy right now if you could help me out." No, he's clear: "My girl is dying. I need your help. Please help me. Please come lay your hands on her so that she will live."

It was a common practice in this day to lay hands on someone who was sick when they were being prayed for. What is uncommon is the confidence that he has in this moment that if Jesus would just come, his daughter would be healed. Did you notice his humility? That's part of the picture of bowing down before him, of pleading, of falling at his feet on his knees. He's completely dependent upon Jesus in this moment. Maybe it is his last option. Maybe he's tried everything else. But he falls down at Jesus's feet. He's humbling himself and saying, "Jesus, I am completely dependent on you. I need your help. Will you just help me?"

Does anybody in here pray a little differently when your back is against the wall? When you've run out of options? When it's way out of your hands? Not only does he fall at his feet, he's crying out. The word is pleading fervently. He's not just asking, hoping, or wishing. There's an urgency to his voice. He's not sheepishly praying because he's not sure how it's going to work out or if he's going to say something wrong. No, he's clear and he's direct: "Jesus, you've got to heal my little girl. She's dying and I need you. She needs you."

I want to say to some of us in here: you need to ask for healing. Don't be bashful to ask. Don't be afraid to say, "God, I need your help." Somebody asked me about it between services and we were talking, and he was saying, "I just feel like I need to just say it. I don't want to be presumptuous when I pray." But he said, "I want to be direct and clear and say, 'God, I need your help.'" He said the worst that can happen is God says no.

So be clear, be direct, and ask God. But how you pray matters. This is not some formula where A plus B equals C and God has to do what you're asking him to do. Instead, this is a moment where God wants us to learn who he really is as we depend on him and what he's able to do. So ask him. Ask clearly, ask directly, and don't hold back. You are depending on him even though you're walking into the midst of struggle and difficulty.

We don't like difficulty or struggle, but yet, it's often in the midst of those moments that God is bringing greater faith into our lives, a bigger understanding of who God is, and a greater sense of trust, even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. God brings faith into our lives. Maybe you're walking through it and for the first time in the midst of difficulty, you understand that even though things are not right and not going well right now, God loves you and he brings peace into your life through faith in Christ.

You may understand that for the first time through difficulty. Or if you are a believer already and trying to follow Christ as a way of life and you encounter difficulty, you learn that you can trust God even more, no matter what you're walking through. Difficulty in life brings a greater dependency in us upon God. So when someone you love, or maybe you, are walking through suffering or sickness or depression, or maybe you're fighting addiction, maybe you've got chronic pain, or a cancer diagnosis, some heart issues, or complications with a pregnancy, you need help.

This word is for you. Jairus's example is for you: to ask for help. To ask clearly and directly. So I ask you, how are you praying right now? Is it a perfunctory prayer right before you fall asleep? "God, please help me." Are you doing it because the preacher says you should or you feel like you should? Or are you like this man right here who is falling at the feet of Jesus, pleading earnestly, fervently saying, "God, I've got to have your help"?

James says in James 4, sometimes the reality is we have not because we ask not. So you need to make sure that you're asking God, "Would you meet me in the midst of this?" God wants us to be in a place of dependence upon him. The second thing that you need to do when you're asking and praying for healing is this: be persistent. Don't quit. Be persistent. Don't quit. Look back in the text in verse 24.

It says, "Jesus went with him and all the people followed, crowding around him. A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. She'd suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything that she had to pay for them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, and so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe, for she thought to herself, 'If I can just touch his robe, I'll be healed.' And immediately the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition."

"Now, Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, and so he turned around in the crowd and he asked, 'Who touched my robe?' And his disciples said to him, 'Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask who touched me?' But he kept on looking to see who had done it. And then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.'"

Now, did you notice that the story shifted for just a moment from Jairus to the crowd and specifically this woman who was a part of the crowd? They were making their way to Jairus's house. Somebody else was in the crowd that needed healing. For 12 years, this woman had had an incurable condition that had caused her to go through incredible suffering. She had spent all the money that she had. She had gone to doctor after doctor after doctor and nothing helped. Not only that, but the implications of her bleeding were that she was considered unclean.

So she was socially and religiously an outcast. In the midst of people gathering for worship, she couldn't even be in the same room. She couldn't gather around people because if she were to get near other people, they would now be considered unclean. And she had heard Jesus was coming and she heard what he'd done and she thought, "If I can just fly under the radar, slip through this crowd—there'll be people everywhere—if I can just touch his coat, I'll be healed."

I think that's why she slipped under the radar, because she knew there were some complications with her being unclean and trying to touch someone else. It would make Jesus unclean according to the convention of the day. Now, getting close to Jesus in the midst of this crowd was kind of like if you watched the Masters last weekend. You could see the ropes that are holding back the patrons at Augusta. They're holding everybody back and the golfers are walking down the middle of the field. It'd be about the equivalent of trying to catch one of their attention and have a conversation with them in the midst of a tournament round.

It's not happening. People are everywhere. But yet, she is persistent and determined to get to Jesus. She fought her way through the crowd and she got close enough and she was able to touch his robe. And it says instantly she knew that something was different. She had been healed. She didn't give up until she found help. I love what my study Bible says. It says sometimes we feel like our problems will keep us from God, but this miracle reminds us that he overcomes even this and offers to help us.

Sometimes you feel like giving up. Sometimes you feel like throwing in the towel—that it's hopeless, that it's not worth it to keep praying, that there's no use in continuing to try to get an answer. But this woman's persistence is a picture for us of what it looks like to just keep going and don't quit. She didn't give up until she got to Jesus. Now, when she touched his robe, he realized at that moment that power had gone out from him, and the disciples thought he was crazy when he stopped everybody and said, "Who touched my robe?"

The disciples looked at him and said, "Jesus, who hasn't touched your robe? We're all crowded in here. There's nowhere to go. We're all bumping into each other." And he's like, "No, I felt power go out from me." The woman was terrified. Maybe she thought since she kind of stole this touch of his robe, just slipped in there and did it, maybe when she's found out he's going to take it away from her. Or maybe she's going to be ostracized even further. Or maybe something bad's going to happen to her because she tried to fly under the radar.

So you can imagine she was scared to death, but she finally comes forward and she says, "It was me." One author said that it was her faith rather than her hand that caused the healing. But I want you to see that her faith was more than just a wishful thinking or a hope-so or some emotion or thing that she believed. She believed enough that she took action to touch Jesus's robe. She was persistent to get to Jesus even though the crowd was pressing in.

But Jesus blessed her persistence. Not only did Jesus heal her, he spoke into her faith. He didn't just do the thing and move on. He recognized and affirmed her faith—that she had acted by fighting against the crowd, going against all odds, by not giving up and being determined to touch his robe. Did you notice what Jesus said to her? He said, "Go in peace." Now, that was a typical thing that in this moment would be expected for a teacher or a rabbi to say—to go in peace. But this took on a whole new meaning for this woman.

Her peace came as a result of her faith. She took action to get close enough to Jesus and to touch his robe. Do you know what I notice about this woman in this moment? This whole thing for her—to think, "If I can just touch Jesus's robe I'll be healed," to do everything to fight through the crowd and to press against all odds to get close enough to Jesus—she was expectant. She expectantly touched Jesus's robe. She believed something was going to happen. Something miraculous was going to take place and so she did whatever it took to get there to him because she believed that Jesus was able to change her future.

So let me ask you: in something that you're praying for, a burden that you're carrying, something where you're asking God to do a miracle, are you expectant? Are you persistent? Are you believing that God is able to intervene with the miraculous in your circumstance? I'm not talking about how you feel or what you're thinking about or what you're trying to convince yourself of. But like this woman, are you fighting through the obstacles? Are you pushing through the crowd and the distractions to get to Jesus? Not to get what you want, but to get to Jesus.

Is this your faith? Are you like the widow in Luke Chapter 18? Go read that story sometime. There's a story that Jesus told about a widow who needs help and she is requesting from an unjust, unrighteous judge in her day, and she is so persistent that the judge finally says, "Fine, just so you'll quit asking." And Jesus says, if an unrighteous judge, somebody who is not right and not doing what's right, finally responds, how much more so do you think your loving heavenly Father will respond to your persistence with him?

Are you that persistent? Look, I get it. It's easy to give up when God doesn't seem to answer quickly or he doesn't seem to respond like you'd hope that he would. But the kind of faith that God wants for you is a faith that's not just trying to convince yourself of something or feel a certain way. God wants you to keep praying, to not give up, to be persistent, to keep asking, and finally in this passage, the third thing that you need to do is to keep saying yes to God while you wait. Keep saying yes to God while you wait.

Look back in verse 35 and see what the text says. It says, "While they were still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, 'Your daughter is dead. There's no use troubling the teacher now.' But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, 'Don't be afraid, just have faith.' Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn't let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing."

"And he went inside and he said, 'Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn't dead; she's only asleep.' The crowd laughed at him, but he made them all leave, and he took the girl's father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. Holding her hand, he said to her, 'Talitha koum,' which means, 'Little girl, get up.' And the girl, who was 12 years old, immediately stood up and walked around. And they were overwhelmed and totally amazed. And Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened and he told them to give the girl something to eat."

You keep saying yes to God even while you wait. Now, don't miss this. Jesus had taken the time to interact with this woman and to heal this woman and to have this whole thing take shape. It took a little for this to happen. Even though this woman had been bleeding for 12 years and she was healed, the consequence of that, the result of that delay, was now Jairus's daughter was dead. Think about how devastating this would be. Think about the thoughts that you would have in that moment.

While you would be overjoyed that this woman had been healed, wouldn't there be a part of you that would think, "Man, she's been sick for 12 years. What would just a little while longer hurt? Now my daughter's dead." That's not how Jairus responded. The text tells us that she wasn't just in a coma. When Jesus says she's not dead, she's asleep, he means this is temporary; this is not permanent. But the word that Luke uses in his gospel—he's a physician, he gives an account of the girl when they come and say, "Hey, she's dead, don't worry with the teacher"—that means she's dead.

It doesn't mean she's in a coma, she's non-responsive, or she's asleep. It means she's dead. The few minutes, the time that this interruption took as they were on the way to the house, proved to be fatal for the little girl. Put yourself in Jairus's shoes for just a moment. The people came and told them that she was gone. Jesus ignored it. He just said, "Fear not, only believe. Have faith." Can you imagine how Jairus must have felt?

But look back to the text at what he does. He doesn't give up and leave Jesus. He doesn't say, "Oh, I thought this faith stuff was stupid to begin with." No, he doesn't run away. He doesn't say, "Forget it," and head out. He doesn't crash out on Jesus or this woman or the crowd because her healing resulted in his daughter's death. No, when Jesus says, "Don't fear, have faith," do you see what Jairus and his wife did? They went with Jesus.

When they get to the house, the setting is that the professional mourners—there was a group of people that would be hired on the heels of a death before the funeral—they would be brought in to help provide comfort to the family. It seems kind of strange to us today, but there was a group of people, and it was their job that they would go from funeral to funeral to provide comfort and to be present for the family to help make grieving easier. They're already there. They're already mourning. That's why he says there's wailing and commotion that was going on.

In this moment when they get to the house, Jesus says to the mourners, "Hey, y'all can stop that. She's not dead; she's just asleep." Well, they know she's dead, and so they laugh. They don't understand what he's saying. But the little girl's parents still follow Jesus inside the house. Now, I'm sure in the back of their minds they're like, "Man, I don't know about this. What's going on here?" But they took a step of faith in this moment and they followed Jesus into the room where the little girl was lying with Peter, James, and John.

And the Bible says he took her hand and he spoke to her and he said, "Little girl, get up." And she stood up and walked around. They were overwhelmed, the text says, and totally amazed. And Jesus says, "Don't tell anybody what had happened and get that girl some chicken nuggets." That's what it says. Jesus had said what he was going to do. He said that he was going to do this even though it seemed hopeless. But the people in this moment believed only what they could see.

God's intervention was not part of what all these people gathered together could see becoming reality. That's why they snickered and laughed. I'll say to us: don't believe only what you can see. There's an entire spiritual realm where God is at work. Don't believe for just a minute that God is limited by our world and what we can understand. Look, this story reminds us that you and I need to make room in our hearts and our lives for God to do what is impossible.

He wants you to trust him. And while you're waiting—as you're praying, as you're asking God, as you're pleading with God to work, as you are being persistent—he wants you to continue to walk by faith and say yes to him even as you wait. Even if the answer to your prayer is no, you just keep walking in faith. Say yes to the invitation to go with Jesus. So can I give you a couple of practical steps today of how you can grow in your faith, how God wants to work in your life while you're asking, while you're waiting for healing?

There's two practical steps I want to invite you to take. The first one is this: open your Bible and listen. Open your Bible and listen. D.L. Moody once, several years ago, said this: "I prayed for faith, and I thought that someday faith would come down and strike me like lightning." He says, "But faith did not seem to come." He says, "One day, though, I read the 10th chapter of Romans where it says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." He said at this time he had closed his Bible and he was praying for faith. But then he opened his Bible and he began to study. He began to listen to God's word and he said his faith has been growing ever since.

Look, there's some people out there that would tell you, "Well, you didn't receive healing because you didn't have enough faith. You just need more faith." And we interpret that as, "Oh well, I need to believe more or try to remove doubt from my life," and we read some passages that seem to kind of give that picture. So we think, "I don't know how to get there because I'm still doubting, I'm still not sure, and it must be my fault that I couldn't remove all doubt that God didn't heal me." But the word teaches us that God is able to the very core of who we are to speak into our lives, to direct our steps, that his word is sharper than any two-edged sword and he's able to speak into our lives. If you want to grow in your faith, if you want help with your unbelief, for your faith to grow, the best way that you can do that is to open up this book and to listen to God speak to you.

When he speaks through his word, you say yes in the small things, in the big things, and you'll begin to see your faith grow like never before. But can I tell you another thing that you need to do? You need to ask other people to pray for you. I appreciate that people want to keep their stuff private; they don't want to tell anybody. Maybe they don't want to be a burden to other people or they don't want other people to think that they've got problems in their lives or stuff that's going on that they can't control. But you need to ask other people to pray for you.

That's why we devote time in each service to say, "Hey, if you need prayer, come receive prayer." Because look, there is this reality throughout scripture that there is a responsibility, a privilege, just a joining together of God's people in the church where we are to help each other carry the burdens that we have. You can't face your stuff alone and you're not designed to do that. You need other people to pray for you. It's why we have the prayer time. It's why we have prayer cards. It's why as a staff team and several other teams in our church, we devote time to praying for each other because God answers prayers.

Don't miss the opportunity. We want to pray for one another and to see God do the impossible. Don't keep it quiet thinking you can do it yourself or handle it in your own way and that nobody wants to hear what your deal is. No, no, no. Don't walk through it alone. Let other people cry out to God with you. The scriptures also teach that you can ask the elders of the church to pray for you if you're sick. Look at what James Chapter 5 verse 14 and 15 says. It says, "Are any of you sick? You should keep it to yourself and not tell anybody because it's your deal."

No, that's what the American translation says. What the word of God says is if you're sick, you should reach out to the elders of the church to come and pray over you, to anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord. And it says such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick and the Lord will make you well. And if you've committed any sins, you'll be forgiven. The scriptures teach that this is part of what elders do. Did you know that the elders of Bayside make themselves available to pray for you?

If you'd like for them to pray for you, you just need to let them know. You see, there's power in other people praying for you. But the reality of it is—and we all know this and we struggle with it—but the reality is God doesn't always heal like we ask. Some of you have chronic health issues and you've asked God to remove them and he hasn't. Or maybe you've prayed for a child who was sick and the cure never came. Or you prayed for a loved one and maybe they got worse or even died. You've prayed that cancer wouldn't return and it did. What do you do with that?

You might be tempted to walk away from the faith and say, "I knew that wasn't going to work," or some people might tell you you didn't have enough faith. But what I would say to you is that the very essence of prayer is trust. It's trusting that even if God doesn't answer as you've asked or as you want, that God is still worthy of your trust because of who he is. And he's inviting you to recognize that healing ultimately is in his hands.

So whether he heals you now in this moment or if you're in Christ and he heals you ultimately, his thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways. And he invites us to trust. But I will say to you that as you pray and as you seek him, just like the folks in this passage, he always meets you in your time of need. Even if healing doesn't come now, if it comes ultimately, he walks with you through the struggle. And that's where dependence and trust in God comes in, even when you don't receive the answers that you'd like.

I bet some of you have a can of this stuff at your house. Everybody knows what WD-40 is, right? Do you know what the WD stands for? It stands for water displacement. Did you know that many, many years ago, in 1953, this was developed for use by the aerospace industry? There was a certain missile, the Atlas missile, that it was used to protect. It would protect from rust and from corrosion. Now, it's just kind of a household deal. You can go to the grocery store, the hardware store, you can go to Walmart, and you can get WD-40 until you don't need any more WD-40.

Water displacement. But do you know what the 40 stands for? It was the 40th attempt to get it right where they finally nailed it. So I just wonder the next time you look at a can of WD-40 and you think about your life and your prayers and your dependence on the Lord and your asking for healing, your asking for a miracle—look, you may just be at attempt number 12. God wants you to be persistent. Ultimately, healing is going to come.

But just like this can, I pray that this can would remind you of the value of persistence. Don't give up. Man, you keep asking God to meet you. Be clear and direct. You be persistent; don't quit, even if it seems like God delays. And then you keep saying yes to God while you wait. God wants us to be a people who are dependent upon him, who trust in him, not just his answers, but in him. And he invites you to that today, whether it is the first time to give your life to Christ or whether you're walking through it right now as a believer and you need to be reminded that he is with you and that one day you will experience full healing even if you don't see it right here and now. Let's pray together.