Finding the Healing We Crave

I’m sick. Terminally and eternally ill. Unfortunately so are you.

The sickness of sin permeates every person, regardless of culture, race, nationality, financial standing or popularity. There is no remedy apart from Jesus, the Son of God, who lived, died and was resurrected as the eternal remedy for that sickness that leads to death.

Once we have surrendered to Him, we are eternally saved but we are continually in need of the remedy. In our humanness we are quick to run to false remedies to quiet the ache, relieve the pain and numb the grief of our flesh.

There is a remedy that is ongoing and lasting for our ongoing sickness of rebellion. Though we are saved once, we are in need of the daily manna that sanctifies these broken minds and bodies and continually brings the layers of healing we crave so desperately. This daily remedy comes in the form of 3 Rs we see repeated in Scripture (God knows we need the repetition!).

1. Repent. We often confuse this with condemnation and self-hate. But that is the opposite of how it is defined in Scripture. Repentance is agreeing with God that we sinned and leaning on Him for a new path. We are not expected to be holy in our own ability, we already proved that is impossible. We are expected to lean hard on His strength and acknowledging our own weakness is where that begins. The promise comes to us in Acts 3:19-20, “Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
2. Remember. I live in perpetual state of amnesia. Always forgetting the faithfulness of God in my life and letting the lies of worry and anxiety whisper their old tales. Instead of allowing the remedy of remembering what God has done to be on repeat, I let the enemy continually walk me down the well worn paths of fear, insecurity and flat out lies. Just this morning in my chronological Bible reading the Lord highlighted this for me in Psalm 107:7 as we see the reminder of Israel’s heart in Egypt. They did not consider God’s works. They did not remember His love and that led them to rebellion. When we fail to remember what He has done, we fail to apply the remedy of His Word.
3. Rest. What a hurried world we live in! Rest feels illusive and foreign most of the time. We hurry thinking we are chasing that rest when all the while we are just running faster after the moving target. Rest is not the physical absence of movement, though napping is needed at times. Biblical rest is a relaxing into the One who holds us. Rest comes when we lean into Who He is, His character and the names that He uses to reveal Himself. Leaning into His names and trusting His character in place of chasing the hurry, is the application of the remedy of Christ to our hearts and minds.

He is holding out the remedy we need to bring healing for these broken hearts and minds. Repenting, remembering what He has done, and resting in who He is is where we find true wholeness and the balm that our souls long for. Let’s press into that truth today, even in the messy middle of life.

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