Verse 38 Simon’s full name is “Simon Peter”. It talks about his mother-in-law who was sick with a fever. God did not create disease nor did He create our bodies to be controlled by disease or illness. Bodily diseases came in with sin and only make our days more trouble. This is all Satan at work. It’s not in God’s character to create something that harms his beloved children. Jesus is shown throughout scripture to be removing illnesses with His miracles. He came to take the sting of death and illness away. The Bible says in Isaiah 53:5 that by His stripes, we are healed.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah‬ ‭53:5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” Isaiah‬ ‭53:5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]; The punishment [required] for our well-being fell on Him, And by His stripes (wounds) we are healed.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53:5‬ ‭AMP‬‬

When we catch an illness, it’s so important to pray over our bodies what the word of God says about sickness. This is the scripture to be praying aloud and believing with faith that the illness must be uprooted in Jesus’ name and leave immediately. I pray it over my daughter every time she gets a cold and every time I get a headache.

Verse 39 Notice after this woman is healed, she got up and prepared a meal for them. There’s always a responsibility when we are healed from Jesus to give Him glory. He expects that we would not just use lip service to praise him but to actually live our days differently. When the Lord meets a need in our lives, we should want to serve Him even more.

Verse 41 Jesus rebukes the demons and doesn’t even let them speak as he casts them all out of the people there that day.

Verse 42 Jesus often goes to these isolated or quiet places of solitude to be alone with God. To rest. To speak to God. He did miracles and then chose to retreat to be alone. This is an example of why we also need quiet spaces in our lives to retreat to.

Verse 43 Even though the people were begging Him to stay, Jesus came to do more than just miracles. He came to preach the good news that the Messiah is here. That was His main purpose. His miracles only proved He was the Messiah.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for coming to this earth and showing us how to live. Thank you for fulfilling Your Word and showing us through all the little and big miracles in our daily lives that You are here, still performing in an effort to share Your Good News with us. Help me to be eager to serve You all the more when these miracles come into my life. I pray for healing over my body, my kids’ bodies, and my parent’s bodies. You came to take away sickness and disease. The devil loves to use these to wipe out our energy. To prevent us from seeking You, God. To keep us from doing Your work, God. So I rebuke the demons trying to hold me down. They cannot keep me held down by an illness when Jesus came to take away every sickness. By Your stripes, Jesus, I declare I am healed in Jesus’ name. You were crushed for my sin and carried my sickness to the cross. And by Your stripes, I declare I am healed. My family is healed. Help me open my mouth to share Your Good News with others. You are here. Immanuel. You have saved me. You have healed me. You will never leave me. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

Side note: God has many names that are used to describe Him. These names are used throughout the Bible to describe different character traits of God. One of those names is “Immanuel” which means “God with us”. So when we pray and we want to call upon God as “the God who is with us”, we say “Immanuel.” Many Christmas songs use this name for God, Immanuel, when referring to Jesus and His birth. Jesus was God in the flesh sent here to earth to be with us. So when we use this term Immanuel, we are actually referring to the part of God who is Jesus, the part of God who came to this earth to be with us. Why does it matter that we call God by His name, Immanuel, instead of just praying “God with us”? Knowing someone by their name shows intimacy. It shows that you know that person. By name. And it is very pleasant to our heart to know that we are known. Imagine you are standing in a crowd and someone is speaking and says “the girl who is here” when talking about you. They could even point to you and mention “the girl who is here”. They clearly do not know you or they would have used your name. Now imagine you are standing in a crowd of people and someone says your name. You can be assured this person knows exactly who you are. They must really know you or really remember you. It feels good to the heart to be known and remembered.

A study was once done that showed when a person’s name is spoken, their brain waves register this as a fond feeling. People love their name being spoken. Interesting! And you can bet, so does our God. He wants to see that we know Him.