Often when I read my daily chapter, there is a verse or thought that I read in a different way than times I have read it before. This morning my verse was verse 8. His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him (8). Paul's actions caught my attention.
Luke reports, after prayer, [Paul] placed his hands on him and healed him. Before today I have always figured that Paul began to pray for the man, laid his hand on him and the man was healed. However a slower intentional read of the sequence suggests that Paul prayed and in response to the prayer laid his hands on the man and he was healed.
My sense is that Paul prayed to the Lord, possibly for guidance on what to do, and God's answer was to lay hands and be God's instrument of healing.
Maybe I am straining our gnats, but my understanding of the event is that Paul's prayer was a check in with the Lord about what he should do. Prayer for healing is only one of a number of potentially faith-filled responses Paul could have had to the sick man in bed.
Needs are present around us all the time. I love the thought of Paul pausing to pray to ask God how He would have Paul respond. This is a powerful guiding image for me...
Lord, help me to pause, to intentionally slow down and seek your guidance as needs are presented to me. To check in with You so that I am led to do what You would have me do and not simply act out of my own fleshly desires or thoughts. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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