We all deal with physical sickness in our lives, whether we are sick ourselves or we have a loved one with an illness. Some sickness like the common cold or the flu may stick around for a few days or a week, and then our body fights it and we’re all better. Other times, as with cancer, it’s more of a struggle that our body may not win. Some sickness can be lived with for a lifetime, while others cut that life short. But we all experience and deal with sickness in some way.
When we are dealing with sickness, what do we want? Healing. Sometimes the body can heal itself because of the amazing way that God has created our bodies to function. Other times medication can help speed the process along. But when we are sick, we want to be healed. So what does the Bible say about physical healing?
First, before talking about healing, we have to know where our sicknesses came from. Before mankind sinned, there was no sickness, so there was no need for healing! When mankind disobeyed God in Genesis 3, the perfect world became broken. The once-perfect bodies that God had created would now have illnesses and difficulties as they got older and worn out.
Psalm 41:1-3 says, “Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them—they are counted among the blessed in the land—he does not give them over to the desire of their foes. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.” That passage seems to promise physical healing for all those “who have regard for the weak,” right? Similarly, Psalm 103:2-3 says, “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.”
If these are promises from God that we will be healed, why doesn’t everyone experience physical healing in this life? While we live in this sinful world, we’ll have to deal with sin and brokenness, including physical sickness. Note that those passages don’t indicate WHEN God will heal us. 1 Peter 5:10 says, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” We know from Revelation 21:4 that when we as believers join Jesus in heaven, there will be no more sickness: “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.”
However, the Bible does give many examples of physical ailments being healed while on this earth, primarily as Jesus healed many people during His earthly ministry. Matthew 9:35 says, “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” To quote some specific examples, Jesus healed the woman who had bled for 12 years, 10 lepers, a paralyzed man, a blind man, and a crippled woman, just to name a few. After Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, His disciples were able to perform some acts of physical healing as well, including this one.
God may or may not grant us physical healing of our ailments today, depending on what lines up with His will. We can always ask Him in prayer for the healing that we desire, though His answer may or may not be what we want to hear. We can trust that God hears our prayers, and if His will is to heal our physical diseases, then we will be healed. Regardless of our status of physical healing, as followers of Christ, we are called to glorify God in all that we do!
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