Healing Christ, deliver me.

Healing Christ, deliver me. Spirit whole and sound and free Deep within my heart abide; Loose my soul of pain and pride. (Patricia Hofer, Living Calm 2016)

Contrary to what we may sometimes hear, God’s intention is not illness. Being sick is never His punishment. Even when we know that we’ve violated some health or safety precaution, we aren’t out of the reach of God’s law of love and forgiveness. The living Saviour is always right here, walking with us and reassuring us of that fact.

That’s why the many Christ healings we encounter in the Gospels are such a great comfort. Once on the Sabbath, Jesus “loosed” a woman, freeing her from a crippling condition that she’d had for eighteen years. Instead of rejoicing as they should have been doing, those around him in the synagogue took pride in criticizing Jesus for violating the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17).

And still today, contrary to what anyone else might think, Christ is always abiding in our heart and by our side, always waiting to “loose” us, to free us and heal us in ways that only he is able to do. So we don’t ever need to walk into a doctor’s office or a surgery alone. We don’t ever need to face the adversity of chronic illness by ourselves. The living Saviour, our advocate and comforter, is walking with us, waiting for us to put our hand in his.

When we abandon our doubts to him, the Lord delivers us from these uncertainties, flooding our consciousness with assurance and renewed faith. When we stop trying to carry the burden of responsibility ourselves, the Lord delivers us with his sustaining strength, moving the load from our shoulder to his. When, at last, we yield, the Lord delivers us with his comforting presence. Wrapping his love around us, he replaces our loneliness and despair with companionship. As Jesus says in John, “My Father is always working, and so am I” (NLT John 5:17).