During a worldwide pandemic we often think of the need for physical healing. But God is the One who can heal EVERY area of your life—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

God didn’t just heal people in the stories of the Bible. Scripture says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”(Hebrews 13:8). That means Jehovah Rapha (our Lord who Heals), from Exodus 15:26 and Jesus Christ – who healed the lame, blind, deaf, and diseased in the New Testament – is still in the business of healing today.

God wants believers to pray for their healing as an act of trust and dependence on Him and to know where our ultimate source of healing comes from. While some aspects of our being are healed immediately, others He heals over time as a way of transforming us into Christ’s likeness. 

Here are seven ways God is our healer, even today:  

1. He heals physically. 

Doctors may tell you healing is a result of medical science, yet God works through doctors and gives them wisdom. Nutritionists may tell you healing is a result of natural supplements, but God provided those healing agents in nature and works through them, as well. God also heals through the power of prayer. You’ve heard – or maybe even experienced – cases when a tumor was clearly on an MRI and after much prayer and a second or third scan, the tumor was completely gone, with no explanation other than God’s healing hand. I have also seen God work through a combination of medical treatment, natural remedies, and the prayers of His people. Jesus once told a woman who risked everything to touch Him, “your faith has made you well” (Matthew 9:22). As you exercise wisdom and diligence to do what you can to be healthy, do you have faith that He can heal your physical infirmities today? 

Although God is able to heal any physical ailment we have, sometimes He allows us to endure certain ailments because they cause us to depend more fully on Him and they draw us closer to Him than we’ve been before. Whether God chooses to heal us physically or not, we are to maintain trust in Him that He is good, and that nothing touches our bodies that hasn’t first passed through His loving hands.

2. He heals the disease of sin. 

Isaiah 53 tells us all that Jesus endured in His own body on the cross to heal our sin nature and free us of the ravages of sin. “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed” (verse 5, NASB). 

The beauty of this passage is that this prophecy of what Jesus would endure on our behalf to cleanse us from sin was written in past tense, even though it was proclaimed several hundred years before Jesus came to earth. Yet our condition of being healed is declared in that verse in presenttense. That tells me that before it was even carried out, God saw our healing work as already done in Christ Jesus. Praise God that, through your faith in the death and resurrection of His Son on your behalf, He has alreadyhealed you of a sin condition neither you nor any doctor could remedy. 

3. He heals the disease of self.

We can invite Jesus into our lives and claim the gift of eternal life and call ourselves His children, but there is still the disease of self to be healed, even after the disease of sin has been atoned for. In Romans 7:18, the Apostle Paul addressed the battle between his flesh (self) and the spirt of God, when he wrote: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” But then Paul gives us hope for this constant battle rooted in our flesh when he says in Romans 8:1: “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” In other words, self-discipline, determination, trying harder or masking ourselves in good works won’t fly. Jesus is the Only One who can cure us of the disease of self when we “die to self” and live unto Him. 

Paul told us the key to healing the disease of self: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20, NASB). Have you, through faith in Jesus, died to yourself so God can finally heal you of the disease of pride and self? 

4. He heals emotionally.

Sometimes emotional wounds can be deeper and more painful than physical injuries or illnesses. The absence of parental love, the pain of rejection or betrayal, the emotional horror of rape, or the unexplainable sorrow of losing a child, spouse, or anyone you deeply loved, can all seem incurable. God never designed us to experience that kind of grief and sorrow. 

We were made to love God and enjoy Him forever in a sin- and disease-free paradise. Yet, our inherent sin from Adam ushered in pain and heartache that still feels foreign to the kind of life we were designed to live. Jesus heals those kinds of wounds that can’t be cured through surgery, medication, or a positive attitude. Psalm 147:3 tells us “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” And Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 

That High Priest is Jesus. Isaiah 53:4 says, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” He has experienced all that we will ever endure in terms of temptation, sorrow, pain, and more – and He has overcome it and is able to help you bear it or overcome it, as well. Have you surrendered your emotional baggage to the One who can heal it all?

5. He heals spiritually. 

I know many people who were raised in cults, or in Christian homes full of legalism, hypocrisy, judgment, and fleshly addictions. Yet, our view of Christ cannot be tainted by improper representations of Him by those who never knew Him or were poor imitations of Him. We must look at the person of Jesus and the description of God in Scripture to know His true character, or we can remain spiritually ill. 

In my book, When a Woman Overcomes Life’s Hurts, I tell Sharon’s story. Sharon was horribly abused by her father from childhood through her teenage years and believed God was as distant and hateful toward her as her father. But her perspective of God changed the day a Bible-teaching pastor asked her “Which God are you believing in?” He recommended she read what the Bible says about God’s character and not rely on her preconceived ideas or misconceptions about God. When Sharon took that pastor’s advice and began to search the Scriptures, she found God to be pure, loving, kind, good, and faithful – everything her earthly father wasn’t. Through God’s healing Word, she was able to unravel the lies she had believed about God and embrace the truth about Him. David’s prayer in Psalm 139:23-24 became her personal prayer to be healed spiritually, and it can be yours, as well: “Search me, O God, and know my heart!Try me and know my thoughts!And see if there be any grievous way in me,and lead me in the way everlasting.” 

6. He heals us of the wounds of our past.

 It’s been said “time heals all wounds.” I believe that happens when we give our wounds to God and trust that He can heal them, in His timing. Raw open wounds don’t heal overnight. But, as we cultivate a lifestyle of trusting God, forgiving others, walking in His light (1 John 1:7), and clinging to His Word, He heals us of those past wounds we can’t seem to overcome on our own. 

Maybe you aren’t holding onto an offense by someone else. Maybe you’re holding onto something you did that you can’t forgive yourself for. Trust that if God can forgive you of your most heinous sin, you can forgive yourself, too. Don’t think you are the exception when He said: “As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your transgressions from you” (Psalm 103:33). Don’t think you are excluded in His generous offer: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Let Him heal you of whatever is in your past because He is the God of fresh starts and new beginnings.

7. He heals our minds and hearts. 

Do you have a problem loving someone? Forgiving someone? Moving on past a certain hurt because your mind keeps replaying it? God is the Only One who can take care of that completely. Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to the world and its way of thinking and behaving, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we can discern the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Allow God to renew your mind – and heal it – through the constant reading and study of Scripture, through the company of others who obey His Word, and through a continual yielding to the direction and conviction of the Holy Spirit. 

For more help in some of these areas, see my books  When a Woman Overcomes Life’s Hurts, and When God Sees Your Tears, both on sale this week in my website store.