October 7 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Matthew 12:15–21

Devotional

What a mass of hideous sickness must have thrust itself under the eye of Jesus! And yet we never read that he was disgusted, but rather that he patiently waited on every case. What a unique variety of evils must have met at his feet! What sickening ulcers and putrefying sores! Yet he was ready for every new shape of the monster, evil, and he was victor over it in every form. No matter where the arrow flew from, he quenched its fiery power. The heat of fever or the cold of edema, the lethargy of paralysis or the rage of insanity, the filth of leprosy or the darkness of blindness—all knew the power of his Word and fled at his command. In every corner of the battlefield he was triumphant over evil and received the homage of delivered captives. He came, he saw, he conquered everywhere.

It is still this way today. Whatever my own case may be, the beloved Physician can heal me; and whatever may be the state of others whom I may remember at this moment in prayer, I may have hope in Jesus that he will be able to heal them of their sins. My child, my friend, my dearest one—I can have hope for each, for all, when I remember the healing power of my Lord. And on my own account, no matter how severe my struggle with sins and infirmities, I may still be encouraged. He who on earth walked the hospitals still dispenses his grace and works wonders among the sons of men. Let me go to him at once in earnest.

Let me praise him as I remember how he worked his spiritual cures, which bring him most renown. It was by taking upon himself our sicknesses. “By his stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). The church on earth is full of souls healed by our beloved Physician; and the inhabitants of heaven itself confess that “he healed them all.” Come, then, my soul, publish abroad the virtue of his grace, and let it “be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure for ever” (Isa. 55:13)

[May 7, morning]

Extracted from C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (public domain), language modernized by Larry E. Wilson.