God Heals and Jesus is for Everybody

Happy Lent! A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit some of our friends from one of the construction projects we visited. This time, I invited a new couple (I will call them Sanjay and Deepika) who are hoping to start working full-time for the Lord soon, to join me on my visit. Sanjay and Deepika are both converts to Catholicism from a non-Christian background and are animated to share God’s Word and the goodness they have encountered in Jesus.

When we arrived at the construction site to meet our friends, we gathered for prayer and sang songs as is our custom. Then I invited Sanjay and Deepika to share. They did a beautiful job, and I could tell that our friends from the construction site were really focused on learning more about our Lord and His goodness. It was neat too because I was able to understand most of what was being shared, even though all of it was in a foreign language (slowly making progress)! After our time of sharing, as we were beginning to say our goodbyes, our friends stopped us and asked for prayers for healing. One man has some chronic stomach issues, so we prayed for him. One of our closest friends there simply wanted prayers for God’s blessings, and she was genuinely moved by the prayer.

Finally, they asked us to pray over one guy (a little newer to this group), who had injured his arm that day and was left with pain and some limited mobility. As we wrapped up our prayer over him, I felt prompted to ask him to raise his arm and see if there was any improvement. I am sometimes hesitant to make these requests for two reasons: 1. My faith is not what it should be, and 2. I never want anyone to feel any pressure to express more of a result from our prayers than what is genuinely there. I know sometimes one can feel a motivation, almost an obligation, to say there has been some improvement…That said, despite my reservations, I felt the prompting was of the Lord, so I asked him to raise his arm and see how it was. He did so, and the look in his eyes was one of genuine relief, and he said he felt much better.

We thanked the Lord and continued chatting a bit before leaving for the night. From the corner of my eye, I saw our new friend outside the huddle of our group again raising his arm and moving it around of his own accord, truly blessed and impressed that his pain was gone. I was also so blessed to see God heal! Jesus can heal, Jesus does heal, not always at the time and in the way we want, but it is good to be reminded of His healing power. In our parting farewell that night, I suggested that our friends Sanjay and Deepika could return one night to teach our migrant friends how to pray the rosary (something they were eager to do, and our friends seemed interested to learn). When we mentioned the possibility of coming back to teach the rosary, the man who earlier experienced the miraculous healing of his arm said, “I’m not a Christian, is it ok for me to also learn to pray the rosary?” Sanjay simply responded, “Jesus is for everybody!”

As we enter into Lent, I pray that Jesus reminds you each of His amazing love for you and that He brings healing into your lives!