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March, 2006 Bible Mini-Study
Love and Healing
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” I Peter 2:24 RSV
The purpose of Christ’s life and ministry was to reveal God’s love for us and free us from anything that would separate us from His Father. (John 17:6-26) This could include suffering from a physical ailment, an emotional wound or a spiritual problem.
Jesus taught His disciples, “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ ” (Luke 10:9) Healing is the power of the kingdom of God at work. Because the Scriptures also tell us that “God is love,” we can conclude that it is God kingdom blessings and His love that heal us.
One of the greatest challenges Jesus faced in his years of ministry was to get people to see their need. He particularly addressed the Pharisees, who believed if they followed certain rules of behavior they did not need God’s help. We are often like the Pharisees. We prefer to do things ourselves. We think that we if we learn the right things to do and say, we can heal ourselves.
Self help books give us knowledge about better ways to live and they can be encouraging. But knowledge is limited. It gives us no guarantee we will be able to act on the knowledge we have received. We may be like the apostle Paul. He knew what to do but he was not always able to do it. (Romans 7:15-59) Jesus went to the cross to gain victory over our weakness and sin, our hurts and despair. The promise is that, by His wounds (the punishment He took for our sakes), we are healed. And all of this was done for us because we are so greatly loved.
Before He died, Jesus said to His Father,
“I have revealed you to them, and will keep on revealing you so that the mighty love you have for me may be in them and I in them.” John 17:26b LB
Some of us have difficulty believing that God loves us. We may have grown up not ever knowing love or we may have felt loved only when we did something well. We don’t have to do anything to earn God’s love. He loves us, not because of who we are, but because of who He is.
I am growing in my acceptance of God’s love by trusting more and more into His care the challenges life brings my way. The more I recognize His loving hand in my circumstances, the more I feel loved and love Him in return.
After my father’s death when I was 15 years old, I began looking for the kind of love I had lost. I married at 18 and was divorced four years later because I did not know how to find and nurture a healthy relationship. After marrying again, I discovered my husband was an alcoholic. His disease eventually led to his death in an automobile accident. In the years following my husband’s death, I started to recognize patterns of my thinking and behaving that were anxious and compulsive. But it wasn’t until my stressful life led to a serious illness that I knew I needed to change my ways of seeking affirmation and love.
I began to pray for healing and others prayed for me as well. (James 5:14-15) Over a period of time, I experienced Christ’s wondrous love touching and transforming my hurts, teaching me about my unhealthy attempts at love and drawing me closer to His Father through forgiveness and reconciliation. Only God through Jesus Christ can give me the love that heals and fills my needs.
“O Lord my God, I called to
you for help and you healed me.”
Psalm 30:2
Because we are a trilogy of being, when Jesus touches us, we receive the benefits in our bodies, souls and spirits. The Greek and Hebrew words for “soul” refer to the center of our emotions, thoughts and will. Our spirit is that part of us that is able to enjoy close fellowship with God. Some healing comes suddenly, but most healing is a process, which requires patience and perseverance. Sometimes in God’s infinite wisdom, complete physical healing is not granted. God allows this because He has something better in mind. He gives us strength to bear it, we mature in our faith, and His greater plan is revealed.
Unfortunately for many of us, Jesus wants to heal us more than we want to be healed. We are reluctant to admit our need and do the work connected with the healing process. We know we must cooperate with the medical profession when we seek physical healing. It is the same when we ask the Lord for healing. We must cooperate with Him. It may mean giving more care to our bodies. It may also require releasing losses and hurts from the past, forgiving those who hurt us, and repenting of the judgments we made regarding them. It will always mean growing spiritually through a deepening worship and prayer life as well as through a growing knowledge of the Scriptures. Maturing spiritually is the most important thing we can do to receive Christ’s healing love.
“We are more than conquerors
through Him who loves us!”
Romans 8:37
Nothing could defeat Jesus because He knew He was loved and precious to God. May we grow in our awareness that God infinitely loves us and we are heirs with Christ to all the blessings of God’s kingdom. (Romans 5:5-8, 8:17-17)
“The greatest demonstration of God’s love for us has been his sending his only Son into the world to give us life through him . . . God is love, and the man whose life is lived in love does, in fact, live in God and God does, in fact, live in him. So our love for him grows more and more, filling us with complete confidence for the day he shall judge all men -- for we realize that our life in this world is actually his life lived in us.” I John 4: 9,16-17 Phillips
A Thought to Ponder
More than anything else, it is love – God’s love for us, our response to His love, and our love for ourselves and others – that defines the quality of our lives.
Suggestions for Prayer-Listening
Lord Jesus, Is there some circumstance where I need to claim your promise that I will more than conquer because you love me? (Romans 8:37)
Is there someone in my life that needs your healing love? How do you want me to pray?
Suggestions for Meditation
Make a list of the things God has done for you in the past year that are evidence of His love for you.
In silence and stillness, give thanks to God and receive His love.
Meditate slowly on the following passage:
“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20 RSV
It is well known that infants who do not receive love in their early years suffer from poor physical and emotional health. It is true of orphans as well as countless people brought up in crippled families.
God’s love is the greatest healing and transforming power in life. What importance are we giving to the receiving and responding to God’s love? It is not our knowledge about God’s love but our experience of His love -- in small things and in significant moments -- that changes us and enables us to speak convincingly of God’s love bestowed on us through Jesus Christ..
At the end of our lives, the question may not be, “How much have you done?” but rather, “How well have you loved?”