Prayer Recovers Emotional Health
By Rick Warren
“The king cried out . . . ‘Please ask the LORD your God to restore my hand again!’ So the man of God prayed to the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored and he could move it again”. 1 Kings 13:6 (NLT)
Have you ever been paralyzed by emotions, such as grief, fear, guilt, or shame? I have. You may think you can’t do anything about your emotions—but that just isn’t true. When you’re paralyzed by your emotions, prayer helps you recover.
There’s a man in the Old Testament named King Jeroboam who got emotionally involved in a situation. God sent another man to the king to tell him news about the future, and the king didn’t like what he heard. In fact, King Jeroboam got so mad he flew into a rage—all because he didn’t want to hear the truth about himself and what was to come.
Has that ever been true of you? Maybe you didn’t like being told some bad news. Or you didn’t like being told that you were causing problems, so you responded emotionally. That’s what happened to King Jeroboam.
Then 1 Kings 13:4 says, “When King Jeroboam heard this, he pointed at him and ordered, ‘Seize that man!’ At once the king's arm became paralyzed so that he couldn't pull it back” (GNT). He had become emotionally bound up, and his hand became paralyzed.
What happened next was astonishing. The king cried out, “‘Please ask the LORD your God to restore my hand again!’ So the man of God prayed to the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored and he could move it again” (1 Kings 13:6 NLT). King Jeroboam knew he wouldn’t recover without prayer.
What has you paralyzed today? Maybe it’s your emotions. Turn to God in prayer and ask other people to pray for you. In the same way King Jeroboam recovered the normal use of his hand through prayer, God can help you recover the healthy use of your emotions.
Prayer is an essential part of your overall plan to recover your emotional health. There is no lasting recovery without it!
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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