Good Morning Friends,
Today we look at a Psalm on why God should be praised for providing and how God cares for people in all of life’s journeys. Then we add a Gospel reading on healing and a passage from a letter on how people and how God rules and how it applies to being Christian and especially a Christian leader. Unfortunately, we are often more concerned about appearing Christian than we are with being the Christian God designed us to be. We go to great extents to keep our Christian reputation and hide our cultural sin of pride and prejudice forgetting the gift inside each of us waiting to be unwrapped. Now the problem here is that there are characteristics of who should lead that conflicts with our cultural bias. The selection process is well established in scripture and in our American Institutions which I will not reference in detail today. You can look them up, but I do want to give some serious thought to the issue as it relates to the next generation and the change in leadership happening in America today. Great leaders face great challenges and perhaps the greatest is to get us to think differently.So today we ask, What Is The Honest Potential Of A Christian Leader?
Scripture: Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre. He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner; but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you. He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat. He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like crumbs— who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow. He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes, and ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the Lord!
Psalm 147 (NRSV)
Once, when he was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him. And he ordered him to tell no one. “Go,” he said, “and show yourself to the priest, and, as Moses commanded, make an offering for your cleansing, for a testimony to them.” But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
Luke 5:12-16 (NRSV)
Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
1 John 5:5-13 (NRSV)
Message: Psalm 147 invites us into a posture of praise—not because life is simple, but because God is faithful. “How good it is to sing praises to our God,” the psalmist says, for the Lord gathers the outcast, heals the brokenhearted, names the stars, feeds the creatures, strengthens the weak, and delights those who hope in his steadfast love. This is not a distant deity but a God who moves toward the wounded and the overlooked with tenderness and power. We see this same heart in today’s Gospel. A man covered with leprosy—isolated, shamed, and untouchable—falls before Jesus and says, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” And Jesus does the unthinkable: he touches him. Before the healing, before the cleansing, before the restoration—Jesus reaches across every boundary of fear and purity and says, “I do choose.” The man is healed, but even more, he is seen. Psalm 147 tells us God binds wounds. Luke shows us how. And 1 John tells us why this matters: because the One who heals, restores, and gathers is the Son of God, the One who came “by water and blood,” the One in whom eternal life is found. Those who believe in him carry God’s testimony in their hearts—the assurance that life, real life, is found in Christ alone.
And So, what does this mean for us today? Maybe it means that praise is not escapism. It brings clarity. Maybe it means that healing is not only physical, it is relational, emotional, spiritual. Maybe it means that leadership in Christ’s kingdom begins with humility, compassion, and the courage to see people as God sees them. Maybe it means that eternal life is not merely a future promise but a present reality for those who trust in the Son. Psalm 147 reminds us that God delights not in human strength or speed but in those who hope in his love. Luke shows us that Jesus chooses to draw near to the hurting. And 1 John assures us that this same Jesus gives us life that cannot be taken away. In a world full of fear, division, and uncertainty, these Scriptures anchor us. They remind us that God is both infinitely powerful and intimately personal. They call us to praise, to trust, and to embody Christ’s compassion in our own leadership and relationships. And if Christ is present we can do great things.
Pray with me that we would praise God not only with our lips but with our lives. Pray that we would see the brokenhearted as Jesus sees them. Pray that we would trust God’s care in both the vastness of the stars and the smallness of our wounds. Pray that we would hope in his steadfast love rather than our own strength. Pray that we would carry the testimony of Christ with confidence and humility. Pray that we would become leaders who touch the untouchable, lift the downtrodden, and reflect the heart of Jesus. Pray that we would rest in the eternal life already given to us in the Son.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 