365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 107: God of Healing

God of Healing

"This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says; I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you." (2 Kings 20:5 NIV)

There is a time to kill, and there is a time for war. But there is also a time for healing from wounds inflicted and losses suffered during those seasons of killing and warring. 

You've probably heard the adage "time heals all wounds." I do not believe this. I believe that the God of Healing acts through time to heal wounds. Certainly God is able to accomplish this healing in one fell swoop, in one miraculous moment in time. But more often, He works through extended time so that we aren't always aware when healing has happened. How do we know we're healing? How do we know that we're moving forward?

Counselors a lot wiser and more learned than I have written volumes on this, so I'll just share (with permission) one example from our family's history.

My daughter had something she needed to kill, something she needed to war against: unforgiveness. She knew she needed to fight this war but resisted being drafted for awhile. Finally, reluctantly, she enlisted but told God, "Okay, I forgive. But I don't feel it, and I don't feel like it."

This one moment of obedience a couple months ago was a turning point in a long journey that had begun a few years prior. And then just the other day, my daughter was able to encourage a friend with the healing my daughter herself had received. My daughter recognized that she felt in that moment what she hadn't felt in the heat of battle. She told me, "I'm really happy to have finally made it to this place."

Healing comes in many forms and takes on many guises. Maybe it looks like being able to encourage someone else's healing. Maybe it looks like realizing that what was put to death during a time to kill and what was battled during a time for war are no longer front and center in your mind all the time. And maybe, sometimes, healing looks like realizing you're not where you were...and feeling happy about that. 

Only God can accomplish soul-deep healing that sticks. He uses many tools, human and otherwise, but true healing belongs to Him alone, because He alone is the Healer. 

"God wants to bring us healing, but more than anything, He wants us to know our Healer. Only God can put the pieces of our heart back together again, close up all the wounds, and bind them with a porous bandage that protects from infection, yet keeps the heart free to inhale and exhale love" (Beth Moore, "Breaking Free").