(The following is the March 22 devotional from my Next Step Devotions book. Before reading it, I suggest you read Luke 13 and pay close attention to verses 10-13.)

Once when Jesus taught in a synagogue, he encountered a woman who had endured a disability for more than eighteen years. “She was bent over and could not straighten up at all” (v. 11). Jesus had compassion for her and said, “Woman, you are free of your disability” (v. 12). He laid his hands on her and healed her instantly, and she glorified God.

We do not know if the woman regularly came to the synagogue. It may have been her first time there, or she may have come for the eighteen years of her disability or longer. We cannot be sure. But we know that her healing did not happen until she had a personal encounter with Jesus. Coming to the synagogue did not heal her; being with Jesus did.

All of us are spiritually disabled until Christ heals us. We are bent over by sin and desperately need something we cannot provide for ourselves. We must experience God, who alone can heal us, forgive our sins, fill us with his Spirit, and place us on the path of following him for the rest of our lives.

People go to church for different reasons. Some go out of habit, while others go out of coercion by parents, spouses, family members, or friends. Some go because of societal expectations, casual interest, or curiosity. Sadly, people fill church pews for many reasons other than to seek a personal encounter with the living Christ.

Spurgeon wrote: “If any go to church merely out of idle curiosity, it is possible, though not certain, that their curiosity will be satisfied. If any go to find fault, I have no doubt that they will find plenty to complain about. But if any have come determined to find Christ if he is to be found, it will be surprising if they have to go away without discovering him. This is what you really need if you are to be restored from all the ills that sin has worked—you must come to Christ himself.” *

Next Step:
Examine your motives for going to church (or for not going). Pray that your reasons are pure in seeking an encounter with Christ.

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* CSB Spurgeon Study Bible, ed. Alistair Begg (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1397.