When people talk about wanting to get well, they are usually referring to the cessation of symptoms. We want the pain to end. As long as it doesn’t seem to interfere with our daily lives, we are ok with having an underlying issue. Even our modern medical system seems to focus on removing our symptoms; but at what cost? Treatments today come with a high price tag and must get paid each time the ailment flairs up. Then we have the side effects which can be worse than the ailment we started with. And what about still being ill? Are we seeking a cure?
Healing has a cost too. We have to admit that we are ill, give up things that hinder our wellness, change habits, add on treatments that nourish, ask for/seek help, take time away from activities, pay the monetary and social price.
God shows us a better way.
One way we can know him is as ‘the God Who heals’. In the Old Testament they use the word râphâ’ (H7495) to describe Him. It means a physician, mend, cure, heal, repair, thoroughly, make whole. In the New Testament they use the word iaomai (G2390) and means to cure, heal, make whole.
But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. Mal 4:2 ASV
When God is the One who heals us, it is a complete work. His highest priority is not our physical health, or happiness but healing the condemned state of our soul. He tears the barriers that keep us from Him down and He fills us with His Holy Spirit, empowering us to overcome whatever we face in life and sealing us as His for eternity.
Becoming one of His children has a price as well. In Luke 14 Jesus tells us what it will require to become His disciple. This isn’t something you enter on a whim. It is a decision; to agree that God’s way is right even when you don’t understand or like it, agree that what He calls a sin is sin, committing to the sanctification process of becoming more like Him, of giving up things that keep you from Him, of loving those who appear unlovable by our fleshly standards, of making Him first in your life and heart.
The cost is high and at times difficult. It’s difficult to grasp the loving price paid on our behalf but once we see do it becomes an act of love on our part to pay our price. Realizing, but only in the finite way our minds can comprehend, the enormous weight of the sin of the world paid in full by Christ who Himself was without sin changes everything. The moment you become aware of the completeness and depth of God’s love for you is an overwhelming and transformational one.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19 KJV
What about physical healing? Yes, miracles are for today too. Sometimes the miracle manifests as an instant healing, other times it is a process, and still other times the miracle is other people seeing you stand firm in the Lord during the course of a lifetime, receiving your healing in Heaven. It can be a leading to stop eating a certain food or a medical treatment. He could answer a quiet prayer over something we consider trivial or He could raise the dead. What we need to understand is that however He chooses to answer it is what is best even if we don’t understand the whys or hows. He sees it all, from beginning to end and knows what is best for our sanctification and for the sanctification of the lives we effect. Yet, He does not leave us alone. His indwelling Spirit joyfully strengthens us to live a life of contentment as we face various trails.
Search: Find other verses that refer to God as Healer.
Reflect On: What it means to have the ultimate price for our sins paid by Christ. Are you looking at God as your ‘sugar daddy’ waiting on Him to do something for you instead of realizing all He has already done? Do you look at your struggles through the lens of sanctification or through your lists of requests/demands for God to fix?
In your journal write a list of things that you have had to give up for Christ and another to show you all you have gained in Him. (i.e. praying about a stressful concern and receiving His peace in that situation.) Write some ways you can faithfully wait in hope while living content in Christ.
Pray: To better understand God as Healer. Ask God to show you areas of your life that have superficial healing and ask Him to heal them completely.
