Why Don’t We Let God Heal Us?

Do we really believe that God can heal; if we do why don’t we let him?  There are many study guides of the Bible, but one that has genuinely hooked me is the “For You,” series.  It is several different authors from the UK and in America that take every single book of the Bible and break it down so that we can see the modern day relevance.  I have grown spiritually in a tremendous way from reading close to sixteen of the twenty-something books written so far.   One of the devotionals I am on now is “Acts For You.”  In the book of Acts, you see the beginning of the Church starting with a plethora of excitement, danger, and amazement.  The disciples were healing people who were lame, blind and deaf—as Jesus instructed.  The power of the church, in this book, has me to question why we are not experiencing healing of this magnitude in the modern day church.  Isaiah 53:5 says that Jesus was wounded so that we can be healed, but we have been one of the sickest generations ever.  America has found cures for diseases like malaria and smallpox but what about the rise of cancer, diabetes, autism, and infertility.  We see the hands of modern-day medicine but where is our God when it comes to healing?  

Mental Miracle

Not only is there a rise in those areas of disease but there is also a rise in mental illness.  Is psychological healing any less miraculous than physical healing?  Let’s get real, in our churches people attend battling with severe depression, anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder that could equal or maybe double the number of people affected by cancer, and other diseases combined; and perhaps you are one of them.  How is it possible that we can sit in church day in and day out and hear the powerful love of God and suffer with the ongoing, gnawing thought that the life you are living will never get any better than it already is right at that moment?  Depression, for example, can center around the idea that there is entirely no hope—no hope of living a better life than the one they have right at that moment—with or without Jesus.  The despair increases when you have Jesus in your life, and you can’t seem to get the healing you need mentally.  You attend church regularly and listen to the preaching, but it is all you can do to focus and believe that those thousands of promises have your name on it.  

Or maybe you battle with so much anxiety that you can’t even think of stepping out of where you are—even if where you are is full of chaos and despair—at least you are familiar with that place.  The Bible says be anxious about nothing Philippians 4:6 but every day you fail that goal.  Anxiety is not just fear it is the feeling of losing control and not having a handle on how to get it back.  It’s the mental reenactment of what has not happened yet—or what has happened before repeating it’s self.  

Is healing of the mind more miraculous than the healing of a body part?  Last week, we talked about the other book I am reading called, “The Shack,” where a man by the name of Mackenzie (Mack for short), lost a family member very brutally and unexpectedly.  He is face to face with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Mack has a massive grudge against God the Father because he holds him responsible for the loss he has experienced.  He is stuck in his hurt and cannot move on, so God in three forms, calls him for a time of healing and restoration.  In reading this book, I realize that healing of the heart and mind is more miraculous than the healing of the body.  How does a man heal and trust God when God allowed someone he loves so much to robbed from him in such a manner?  How does someone put their faith in God after—what seems like—an epic fails on God’s part?  How do we move forward mentally with such pain and fear building up daily?  

Tell God the Truth

When Mack came face to face with God at the shack, there were so many questions that he started asking.  When God addresses him, this statement came out to me, “I often find that getting head issues out of the way first makes the heart stuff easier to work on later…when you’re ready.”  God was not, and is not afraid, ignorant or intimidated by our anger, depression, hopelessness.  Despite what we tell ourselves or the way we try to hide our emotions, God knows everything we are going through mentally, so why deny it?  Many would say, well if God knows it then why do I have to say it?  He knows why I am this way so why go there?  Well, God appreciates hearing us express our feelings—good, bad or indifferent—with our voice.  God will not allow who He is—an all-knowing God—to rob from us the pleasure of being who he created us to be.  Our Lord created us to think for ourselves and express our hurts and pains as we see them.  God will not use his power to take away the thoughts, or the ability to express those thoughts, just because he’s already aware of them.

So where does true healing begin and why don’t we experience it?  True healing begins by facing those thoughts that you are trying desperately to hide, forget or bury.  God can not heal what you do not bring to him.  We chew on thoughts like gum but are too ashamed to speak them out loud; you may feel that not speaking them will keep them from being real.  Sadly, if they are already real in your mind, then they don’t become any less real when you speak it to God for healing.  Your pressing imagination to harm yourself or someone else is already real. Your thoughts of hatred towards God is already real, as well as your disbelief of the things you have read or heard in the Bible; so why not tell him what is plaguing you?  

In this book, Mack tells God that he is cruel, unfair, wrathful, incapable of protecting those he loves, a horrible judge, a horrible example of a father and more.  As harsh as those accusations sound, those are some of the thoughts we may have had at some point during a moment of trauma, loss or abuse.  These moments between God and Mack bring a more miraculous healing than any supernatural physical healing could ever deliver.  God can easily set our bodies back to where he originally designed it, that is not a challenge for him; however, our hearts and minds are for us to think and believe what we want freely.  God cannot and will not invade our thoughts and minds without permission.  He can’t make you trust him; he can’t make you let go of your fear if you don’t want to.  But God can remove cancer from your body whether you love him or not.  He can cure you of lupus whether you believe or not.   Healing in the mind, is a choice that only we can make and to surrender over a part of us that can just be healed when we let go, is even more amazing than what God did in the new church.  

Weekly Challenge:

There are some steps we can take towards healing.

• Check your crutch.   Look at what you are turning too when you feel like you are falling.  For example, many will admit that they seclude themselves and eat junk food that gives them a temporary feeling of satisfaction.  Others watch shows that feed their hurt or mirror their struggle instead of watching something more uplifting and encouraging.
• Review your support system. In this time of your life, you need the right people that will help you and challenge your thinking and help to remove the lies that are continually going through your mind.  

Psalms 1:1-2

          Blessed is the man[a]
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

Anyone that sits, stands or walks with corrupt, sinful, scoffers are not going to experience any healing.  It is so easy to seclude yourself and stay silent about your thoughts, but only you can break that cycle and let those you trust into your dark world of the unknown.

• Go back to the beginning.  Some behaviors that we have are a result of a moment where you feel you were hurt, and we don’t even realize it.   Some bad habits and activity may stem from something simple, and it just needs you to be willing to trace it back to origin to get real healing.

I would also encourage you to get professional faith base help.  God calls himself a counselor for a reason.  A counselor takes time to listen and bring guidance in a time that may seem confusing and disheartening.  God has given us people who have the same gift and can be that physical example of him.    

Next article is a discussion on free will.  Is free will ever really free?