Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Today I read Randy Clark’s writing in The Essential Guide to Healing. He relayed that God empowers us to bring “salvation in its fullest sense to people – including forgiveness, healing, deliverance and the ‘redemption and lift’ of the poor.” I had never heard of this “redemption and lift” concept, so I looked it up online. It ends up that families that come to faith often in one generation experience a positive shift in their socio-economic standing. The term was first coined by Donald MacGavran and more recently sociologist Rodney Stark provided statistical evidence for the phenomenon in “America’s Blessings.” We must be careful to avoid a transactional relationship with our father in heaven. God is not a vending machine. But I do believe, and the data seems to show, that blessings follow as an overflow of an intimate relationship with a loving father. It’s not always a straight line. There will be ups and downs. But I guess those tough moments are an opportunity to exercise our faith. Lord, thank you for an opportunity to know you. Thank you for giving us healing, recovery and restoration. Thank you for redemption and lift. When the world screams that all is not ok, I choose to believe that the end is always good. If it’s not good, it’s just not the end yet. In Jesus’ name, Amen.