The Healing Power of Love
Worship
Bright Intervals
40 Brief Worship Services and Meditations for Any Occasion
Object:
Greeting and Call To Worship
God so loved the world that God sent the only begotten Son, so that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!
Opening Prayer
Gracious God, we give thanks for the gift of your amazing love in Jesus Christ. We stand in awe of the fact that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! O God, teach us not only to be thankful for this love we will never deserve, but to be courageous enough to love others in the same incredible way you have loved us. Amen.
Lord's Prayer
Special Hymn
"Jesus Loves Me"
The text of this familiar hymn was written by Anna Bartlett Warner for her novel, Say And Seal, in 1859. The main characters of this novel were a dying child, Johnny Fax, and his Sunday School teacher, John Linden. Toward the end of the story, the teacher, John Linden, carried the child and sang to him what has now become the familiar children's hymn. Anna Warner and her sister Susan, daughters of a New York lawyer, between them wrote more than seventy books. Every Sunday afternoon in their home near West Point, they taught a Bible class to the cadets. The sisters were buried with full military honors in recognition of the contribution they made to the lives of young military officers.
Scripture Reading
John 15:12-17
Meditation
A young mother was coming out of the grocery store accompanied by four small, lively children, and pushing a cart that was loaded with purchases. An older man watched for a moment and then said, "How do you ever manage to divide your love among those four active children?" The young mother looked up and, with a smile, she said, "I don't divide it ... I multiply it!"
There is nothing in this world more powerful than love. Sometimes we forget just how powerful love is. The world keeps asking us to put our trust in military might, economic strength, and political clout, but it is love that makes the world go around. The Bible insists that love is the single most authentic sign of a person being Christ's disciple. On that last night of his earthly life, gathered with his disciples in the Upper Room, Jesus kept talking about love. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Jesus could have spent that night reviewing the Ten Commandments, or describing in detail what heaven will be like, but he didn't! Instead, the Great Physician talked about the incredible power of love to heal our broken lives. The famous psychiatrist Karl Menninger once said, "There is nothing worse, and nothing more devastating in human experience, than the feeling of being unloved. On the other hand, love has the power to cure, both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it."
Jesus knows that love has the power to heal us physically. That does not mean that love is a substitute for a good doctor, but unconditional love like that of Jesus Christ can play a big part in the healing process. A woman in Sweden was taken to a rehabilitation center following a mild stroke. She was a very difficult patient, because she had not spoken for weeks. A Christian nurse, who believed that real love is not an emotion but rather an act of the will, decided to love this difficult patient with the unconditional love she had seen in Christ. Instead of shouting at the patient or ignoring her, she pulled up a rocker next to the rocker of her patient. They sat there together, and occasionally the nurse would reach over and pat the hands of the patient. This went on for a week when, suddenly, the older woman turned to the nurse and said, "You are very kind." A few days later, she began talking normally and, after several months, the patient was able to return to her home.
Now it does not always work out so wonderfully as that, but do not miss the incredible power of love to heal us and make us whole physically. Love also has incredible power to heal the emotional and spiritual hurts in our lives as well. Often beneath our outwardly smiling faces there exist deep scars from painful hurts. It may be the memory of a child rushing downstairs to open a Christmas stocking and finding instead a lump of coal as punishment for some trivial childhood naughtiness. Or it may be the painful memory of someone who introduced us to the mysteries of sex long before we were ready for that relationship. It may be an ancient guilt that haunts us day and night.
Those are the kinds of hurts that can only be healed by the awesome power of God's love. A young woman named Nancy felt a desperate need to be loved. So low was her self-esteem and so great was her need that she would give herself to whatever man she was with. In the small town where Nancy lived, she became a "woman with a reputation." Then one day Nancy met a Christian man who fell deeply in love with her. He knew all about her past, but together they began to pray for God's healing in her life. Nancy became a beautiful, radiant woman, the living proof of the healing power of God's love!
Closing Prayer
O God, heal us with the amazing power of your love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
God so loved the world that God sent the only begotten Son, so that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!
Opening Prayer
Gracious God, we give thanks for the gift of your amazing love in Jesus Christ. We stand in awe of the fact that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! O God, teach us not only to be thankful for this love we will never deserve, but to be courageous enough to love others in the same incredible way you have loved us. Amen.
Lord's Prayer
Special Hymn
"Jesus Loves Me"
The text of this familiar hymn was written by Anna Bartlett Warner for her novel, Say And Seal, in 1859. The main characters of this novel were a dying child, Johnny Fax, and his Sunday School teacher, John Linden. Toward the end of the story, the teacher, John Linden, carried the child and sang to him what has now become the familiar children's hymn. Anna Warner and her sister Susan, daughters of a New York lawyer, between them wrote more than seventy books. Every Sunday afternoon in their home near West Point, they taught a Bible class to the cadets. The sisters were buried with full military honors in recognition of the contribution they made to the lives of young military officers.
Scripture Reading
John 15:12-17
Meditation
A young mother was coming out of the grocery store accompanied by four small, lively children, and pushing a cart that was loaded with purchases. An older man watched for a moment and then said, "How do you ever manage to divide your love among those four active children?" The young mother looked up and, with a smile, she said, "I don't divide it ... I multiply it!"
There is nothing in this world more powerful than love. Sometimes we forget just how powerful love is. The world keeps asking us to put our trust in military might, economic strength, and political clout, but it is love that makes the world go around. The Bible insists that love is the single most authentic sign of a person being Christ's disciple. On that last night of his earthly life, gathered with his disciples in the Upper Room, Jesus kept talking about love. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Jesus could have spent that night reviewing the Ten Commandments, or describing in detail what heaven will be like, but he didn't! Instead, the Great Physician talked about the incredible power of love to heal our broken lives. The famous psychiatrist Karl Menninger once said, "There is nothing worse, and nothing more devastating in human experience, than the feeling of being unloved. On the other hand, love has the power to cure, both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it."
Jesus knows that love has the power to heal us physically. That does not mean that love is a substitute for a good doctor, but unconditional love like that of Jesus Christ can play a big part in the healing process. A woman in Sweden was taken to a rehabilitation center following a mild stroke. She was a very difficult patient, because she had not spoken for weeks. A Christian nurse, who believed that real love is not an emotion but rather an act of the will, decided to love this difficult patient with the unconditional love she had seen in Christ. Instead of shouting at the patient or ignoring her, she pulled up a rocker next to the rocker of her patient. They sat there together, and occasionally the nurse would reach over and pat the hands of the patient. This went on for a week when, suddenly, the older woman turned to the nurse and said, "You are very kind." A few days later, she began talking normally and, after several months, the patient was able to return to her home.
Now it does not always work out so wonderfully as that, but do not miss the incredible power of love to heal us and make us whole physically. Love also has incredible power to heal the emotional and spiritual hurts in our lives as well. Often beneath our outwardly smiling faces there exist deep scars from painful hurts. It may be the memory of a child rushing downstairs to open a Christmas stocking and finding instead a lump of coal as punishment for some trivial childhood naughtiness. Or it may be the painful memory of someone who introduced us to the mysteries of sex long before we were ready for that relationship. It may be an ancient guilt that haunts us day and night.
Those are the kinds of hurts that can only be healed by the awesome power of God's love. A young woman named Nancy felt a desperate need to be loved. So low was her self-esteem and so great was her need that she would give herself to whatever man she was with. In the small town where Nancy lived, she became a "woman with a reputation." Then one day Nancy met a Christian man who fell deeply in love with her. He knew all about her past, but together they began to pray for God's healing in her life. Nancy became a beautiful, radiant woman, the living proof of the healing power of God's love!
Closing Prayer
O God, heal us with the amazing power of your love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
