God's First Step of Healing

Have you ever had a bad doctor’s appointment? One where you didn’t expect to hear the news you heard or see the cold, hard truth of what’s wrong with your body?

I had one of those the other day. My body hasn’t been feeling great and I saw a new doctor. She ended up finding a bunch of root-cause problems of a medical problem I have, and showed me a picture of my spine health that had me crying later. Needless to say, I felt broken physically.

The good news is, there’s a path of treatment. The bad news is, I will never be perfect in health.

As I reflected on this, I moved out of my sadness and realized that without discovering the deeper wound, I would never get the healing, which I had been praying for. That struck me a lot like the path of spiritual healing. 

First, there’s recognition of the suffering, wound or sin in our life. Second, there’s sorrow as a natural human reaction. Third, there’s a winding path of treating the wound through repentance and conversion. Sometimes we treat just the symptoms and surface issues, but eventually we solve for the root cause. Oftentimes, that involves some sort of change in our lives -- sometimes dramatically -- and an investment of time and resources in the healing process. Then finally, there’s healing and wholeness. Frequently though, we are never quite perfect.

God’s path of healing seems to take a consistent form no matter what the wound.

So if and when you ever get that news from the doctor, or if you’ve just recognized a new wound or sin in your life, don’t despair. It’s the first step.

You’re on God’s path to healing.