Healing

A requirement for healing is that it is preceded by a period of difficulty, such as loss or trauma. Healing is one of the beautiful parts of life, like how even on the darkest of nights, the dawn still comes. Or the way you have to tear your muscles repeatedly for them to grow. In the Bible, we can read stories of suffering turning to healing and recovery. From Job to Ruth to the Apostle Paul to Jesus Himself. It seems on earth, we must face adversity, learn, grow, heal, and repeat. I’ve even heard it said that trials are a blessing to be entrusted with. There is an example of this in the Old Testament when God trusted Job with suffering. “And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’” – Job 1:8. I would guess that Job is probably the most quoted book when referring to God’s allowance of pain, so I’m sorry if you have heard this a million times. I find healing and freedom in the simple fact that God is sovereign over our pain and nothing happens without His approval. It also brings peace knowing that when we go through hard things, it could be God’s reward for our faithfulness.

There’s a quote that says: “Healing is harder than the pain because healing requires you to face it in order to get through it.” I found that to be so profoundly true. It can be very easy to numb or ignore pain, and true healing requires real effort, reflection, and prayer. Facing our hurt and reflecting on it will reveal everything it taught us about life, God, and ourselves. Hiding pain is an extremely human response, and I’m truthfully ignorant about the benefits of healing while simultaneously drowning if that is even possible. It often seems like you are just trying to survive the season and get to the next one when you will have the mental fortitude to process everything. I am also unsure what being fully healed would look like, but I imagine you’d be awfully close to Christ if being a one-hundred-percent-healed person were possible.

Another layer of this onion is the types of healing we might experience in a lifetime. We could be like Job, healing from the loss of his family, or like Paul, healing from the weight of the things he’d done before he met Jesus. We could be alone like Jesus after John the Baptist was killed, or we could be with other people like Naomi and Ruth. There isn’t a set parameter or guide for grief, but the beauty of it is that the Lord walks with us through it. There will never be an hour of the day that we could seek Him and He won’t be found by us. "You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart" - Jeremiah 29:13. What a blessing it is to have the ability to, for one, experience deep emotions that make us wiser and stronger, and for two, lean on the King of kings and Lord of lords for all things.

Truly, the greatest gift we have is our faith. My heart aches for those who don’t know what the freedom of faith feels like. It’s as though all of this life happens around you and you are able to just stand still in the middle of it, totally at peace. My faith has brought me out of many dark places, and I remember the times when I didn’t have that. It shocks me very often that I, a girl who felt the paralyzing anxiety of every tiny detail, choice, word, and everything else, can now just breathe and trust that even if the worst thing possible happens, God will still be in control. Weirdly enough, though, it can be hard to remember sometimes, so I know that keeping faith is a battle in its own right. If you’re in a place where you feel you need healing, I pray that you can find comfort in knowing that God is there, guiding you through this season, and that He is allowing you to endure it for a reason.