Daily devotional, 31 May 2024 The Best Physician
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3
My children were laughing one day as they watched Asian Memes. In the memes, most Asian parents were portrayed to be forcing their children to become doctors. As I sat down to watch with them I discovered that unfortunately, the reason why the parents are supposedly forcing their child to become a physician is not to heal the sick or help those with health troubles. Their foremost reason was to their mind, being a doctor will help their child and their whole family achieve financial success.
As followers of Jesus, we have within reach the noblest and the greatest physician of all time — our Heavenly Father. In fact, one of the names attributed to God is “Jehovah Rapha,” which is translated as the “God who heals.”
Translated in Hebrew, it means “to cure,” “to mend,” “to repair,” and “to make whole.” So indeed our Lord is not just powerful enough to cure our physical ailments, He is also our God that can fix life and spiritual issues that a normal doctor cannot address.
For instance He can mend us. We at one point have all been broken. We may have suffered heartaches inflicted by those we love most. We may have suffered loss and deep grief, and we may have sustained betrayals from our closest friends. These may have left us broken, but when we come to Jesus, He will fix us.
"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18
So how will He fix us? As we prioritize our relationship with Jesus, we will live a life of obedience. Abiding by God’s commands protects us from moral and spiritual hurts that could drag us down.
When we love Jesus above all, we will slowly realize that only He is constant and faithful. We will get to accept that people around us are bound to fail us at one point and we should not be too grief stricken when we get hurt, because humans are not perfect. And when we know that Jesus is all we need, we can easily let go of the things and people that have failed us.
Another meaning of the name Rapha is “to repair,” and indeed our Lord and Savior does that to our lives. Once we surrender our lives to our Creator by following His will instead of ours, He will make us new. We will be like a mobile phone whose factory settings have been restored:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
2 Corinthians 5:17
The other use of the name Rapha is “to make whole,” and indeed our Messiah does! When we live a life of obedience and worship to Jesus Christ, we will live a life of contentment. We will have the peace that transcends understanding and the joy that surpasses the inevitably difficult circumstancesin our life journey.
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
John 14:27
And indeed when we have Jesus’ peace, we will lack nothing! At this point though, you might be wondering how about physical healing? Both the old and the new testament have shared stories upon stories of characters who have been restored to full health by the Lord.
These included the lepers, the lame, the blind, the demon-possessed, the woman who bled for 12 years, the child who died, the slave of the Roman official, among others who were healed by the Lord and through Him. The common denominator to all these stories of healing is their faith in God. We have to come to the Lord believing that He will heal us.
"Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases." Psalm 103:2-3
But what if we still have yet to experience healing? Well, we should trust God’s sovereignty. We should acknowledge that He is in control, and we should just wait for His perfect timing to restore our wellness.
"But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
Isaiah 40:31
We should also take inspiration from the Apostle Paul who also prayed for healing, and accepted his fate as He waited on the Lord.
"Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect inweakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:8-9
We have to tap into the Lord’s strength so that we can endure our ailments while we wait on Him. After all, He has invited us to come to Him:
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:28
Thank you for reading through our devotional today. I invite you to ponder on 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 to dig deeper on today’s topic.
Reflection Question: Are you praying for your healing?
Conversation with the Lord: Heavenly Father, thank you for being my greatest healer. I acknowledge your power my Lord, and I will wait on you. Please take hold of my emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical ailments. Please help me endure them, as I hold on to my faith in you and your promises. Amen.
