I smile. I laugh. I do everything within my power to keep up appearances, because I do not want to rob my family of the wife and mother they deserve. But there are times when I am unable to be that ezerWatcher in their lives, because I am bent over.
In Luke 13:11-13, we are told of a woman who was bent over. We are told that the cause of her condition was the result of a spirit of infirmity that she had for 18 years. Was she bent over for those 18 years or did the permanency of the bent condition gradually set in? We were not told.
However, what we can surmise is that she was not in hiding. She was in public view; her plight was apparent to all. Yet only one, truly saw her need and responded to that needed. Her plight screamed so loudly (though she was silent), that it interrupted his activity.
We are told that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. When he saw her, he stopped teaching and called her to him. He didn’t call her to draw attention to her plight; rather he called her to give her a release that was overdue. He spoke a word of deliverance over her, laid his hands on her, and watched as 18 years of infirmity fell off her back. Immediately she was straight, no longer bent over!
As women, sometimes we struggle with some types of infirmities that may not be visible to the naked eye. Our bodies go through stages and phases that oftentimes even we do not understand. There are times when these infirmities put us in positions where we, like this woman, are unable to lift ourselves. We continue attending church. We continue with our daily tasks, not realizing that every day the burden of the infirmity is causing us to bend a little lower than the day before.
Eventually, we awake to the fact that we are completely bent over. We can no longer lift ourselves, nor those around us. This very lack of strength or ability to lift ourselves then becomes an additional weight of worry and guilt, because we are not able to function as the ezer we know we were created to be. The weight of that knowledge causes us to be even more bent over. If left unnoticed or unaddressed, gradually we become so bent that we find ourselves in a prison of despair.
But thanks be to God! We have a Savior who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). His ears are attuned to the silent screams of our hearts. He is never too busy to call us to himself, speak a word of deliverance over our lives, and lay his hands of healing upon us.
My sister, he is waiting for your response to his call today. Would you be made whole? Will you come to Jesus as he calls you today? Will you heed his invitation, come aside for a while, and allow him to cause all the weights you are carrying to fall off so that you can be straight again?
Every now and then we may find ourselves bending beneath the weight of life; the weight of being ezer. But we were not created to bear that weight alone. Jesus died so that we do not have to remain bent over!
DIG DEEPER:
1. Bible Study – The God Who Hears & Sees Me
***Infirmity – from the Greek word astheneia – means want of strength, weakness, infirmity
A. Of the body
– Its native weakness and frailty
– Feebleness of health or sickness
B. Of the soul – want of strength and capacity requisite
– To understand a thing
– To do things great and glorious
– To restrain corrupt desires
– To bear trials and troubles
***Bowed together – from the Greek word sygkypto – means bent completely forward, stooped together i.e. completely overcome by it.
***Lift up – from the Greek word anakyptoa – means to unbend (as in a reversal) i.e. to rise figuratively, be elated – look up.
– To raise or lift one’s self up (i) one’s body; (ii) one’s soul
*** Key Terms definitions are taken from Strong’s Concordance and Thayer’s Greek Lexicon.