What I am Learning About Healing

Often, when we or someone we know is sick or hurting, we can’t help but ask:

If God can heal me/them, why doesn’t He?

On Monday, I shared that I struggle with an ailment that there seems to be no definitive cure or treatment for in our medical world. On my long journey to even get a diagnosis, we have prayed many prayers, asking God to heal me the way my doctors couldn’t seem to. Through all of this, I have wondered what God’s purposes are by not healing me, even when I believe that He can. However, this is not the only area of my life that I’ve ever prayed and asked for healing.

Like many of you, my life has been filled with times of physical or emotional pain—personally or in the lives of those I love. I have had plenty of opportunities to think about, pray for, and learn more about healing. So, I wish I could say I have all the answers to why God heals some and not others, but I don’t. There are however, a few things that God has been teaching me about healing that I’d like to share today.

Healing is a Process

Becca Stevens in her book, Snake Oil: The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling, says, “Healing is not an event, but rather a journey.” How many of us have ever wanted God to heal us of something instantly, yet instead, He seemed to take us through it rather than take us out of it?

Last summer, my mother broke her ankle. Though she had two surgeries and pins were inserted to literally put her bones back together, the most important healing came in the months after. At first, she had to keep it elevated. After a month or so, she could put a little bit of weight on it—then a little more, and then a little more. It was a very slow process. But all of her bones, nerves, and muscles needed to recover before they could again do what they were created to do.

Healing takes time—and not just for physical injuries. If you have ever experienced a break up or the end of something very important to you, you too know this to be true. Whether it is dealing with the raw ache of separation, or literally trying to repair our bones, healing can take months or even years. Though the cause of our pain often happens in an instant, the process of restoration is much slower.

Sometimes, Healing doesn’t come the way you want

There have been times I thought I was on a journey to heal one part of my life, and God healed me in a completely different area. In this post, I shared how I gave up sugar (and a whole bunch of other stuff), to try and heal a chronic pain issue. Though my efforts to ease my pain helped, it was from my addiction to sugar and feelings of shame over feeling hungry all the time that God healed me.

Very often the pain we are experiencing is actually pointing us to a deeper, more important healing that God wants to work in us. I am finding that when I am in pain it is important to ask God what He is doing and if there is something else He is trying to bring to my attention. Where we often want to get rid of the symptoms that are bothering us, God wants to root out the entire illness.

Sometimes Healing takes work

In second Kings, chapter five, there is the story of a great and powerful warrior from a neighboring nation of Israel’s. His name is Naaman, and his life seems ideal—until we learn that he has leprosy. Having a disease with no cure, his future looks bleak. Then he is told about a prophet in Israel who can heal him.

After a somewhat round about journey, Naaman finally finds himself at the door of the prophet Elisha. But, rather than Elisha greeting Naaman with a fancy healing ceremony, he sends out one of his servants instead. The servant tells Naaman to wash himself seven times in the Jordan. Only Naaman gets upset. His attitude is basically:

“He wants me to do what?”

Finally, with some encouragement from his servants, he does what he is told, and he is healed. Sometimes God calls us to take some steps toward healing that seem simple, possibly embarrassing, or even tedious, before He brings about the change we need. It may look like going to counseling, asking for forgiveness, changing our diet, or giving up something we love—but whatever it is, God sees that it is an important piece in our healing journey.

In a world where it seems they’ve created a medicine or solution to so many problems, there is still so much pain, sickness, and suffering. And while we don’t understand why God won’t move the way Naaman wanted Elisha to—to just please take away all of the illness we carry in our bodies, hearts, and minds—God does promise that there will be a day that He “will wipe every tear…There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain (Rev. 21:4).” In the meantime, we need to begin to see healing not as a right or one time event, but rather as a journey towards not only restoration, but also growth.