PASTOR’S CORNER: Breaking free in 2024

While Jesus taught in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years and was bowed together and could not lift herself.

Jesus called to her and said, “Woman, thou are loosed from your infirmity. He laid hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God (Luke 13:10-13).” She pressed her way to the synagogue, and Jesus healed her.

Community friends, many of you can testify that there were Sundays you didn’t feel like going to church, but you got up and pressed your way, and you were so glad that you did. I believe, I believe, that that’s why some people are not healed today, they are not delivered today, they are still bound and bowed together is because they don’t have a press in them to make it to the house of prayer to be with the saints and where the spirit of the Lord is. We all know that folk press their way where they want to go! They go to the mall. They go to restaurants, the beach, the movies, and theme parks.

I believe that God would do some things, destroy some yokes, and do work in the lives of his people if they would just get in the press! Look at this woman. Jesus didn’t come to her. She came, and she pressed her way to the synagogue. She was in the right place. Community, folks that don’t go anywhere miss out. Those who stay home from church because of every little ache and pain yet go everywhere else miss out. If this woman had stayed home, we all would understand. I mean, in this condition and the struggle it took for her to walk to the synagogue because they didn’t have an automobile or Uber in those days. So we would have understood if she did not come to church. But it was something about being in the midst where the spirit of the Lord is, and the feast of the Lord is going on.

And when the church is your life, when worship is who you are, when you believe in the promises of God, when your hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and righteousness, when you battle Satan all week, and you press your way to the house of God to hear a word, things can turn all the way around. There is something about the word of God that drew her to the assembly. She had been this way for so long, till this, it was incurable. As painful as it was, she made her way to the synagogue on the Sabbath Day. No doubt, people stared at her as she went. Whispered behind her back, saying, “It didn’t take all that!” you know how people are. “She should have stayed home in her condition.” “God knows her heart.” Something else we can learn from this is that this woman was not content to stay in her comfort zone. She ventured out.

In 2024, saints, we are called to step outside our box. Leave our kinfolk if need be so God can use us. Like Abraham, it’s time to break free! This woman did not let what people thought about her hinder her. Community, until we forget about people and what they think, we will never be all God wants us to be. Like this woman, we will be bowed together. After eighteen long years of dealing with this demonic infirmity, here she is at the synagogue on the Sabbath Day. But something was getting ready to happen. For man’s extremities are God’s opportunities. Today, she was going to break free. Her perseverance is about to pay off, for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength (Isa. 40:31).

Sometimes, God will wait until things are at their worst, and then he will show up, speak to the situation and give us a miracle. This morning, somebody may be like this woman. Your situation may be crippling, and you don’t know what to do. Things are out of control. You pray, go to church, do the right thing. Day after day, week after week, nothing has changed. God told me to tell you that’s exactly where he wanted it to get. So that when he does show up and speak to it, you will know that it is God, and God will get the glory! Jesus spoke the word, and then he laid His hands on her, and immediately she was healed.

Look at Jesus, community, in this healing process. he didn’t tell her to jump up and down, run up and down the aisle to receive her miracle. He didn’t tell her to get in a 20-dollar prayer line or sow a seed in order to be blessed. He didn’t use methods of intimidation or coercion. No, Jesus just spoke the word and laid hands on her, and immediately, she that had been crooked was made straight. She broke free! Community, since our name was not in the obituary column this year. And since God is so good, In the name of Jesus Christ, we ought to break free in 2024! Break free from sin. Give your life to Jesus Christ, and he’ll make a miracle out of a mess! Break free from jealous folk. Break free from fear and domestic violence. Break free from anybody or anything that will bow you down. 2024 is a brand-new year. In the name of Jesus, “Thou art loosed from your infirmity!” It’s time to break free in 2024.