Spiritual Readiness
Get Well Soon!
By Dr. John Wagner
Being sick or in the hospital is never any fun! But going to the hospital and being healed is far better than the alternative: Remaining sick or perhaps even dying!
Our lives are important to us and most of us don't want to die. We want to LIVE! And yet, what kind of lives do we live when we're not in the hospital? Many times we struggle just to make ends meet. We're lonely and scared. Our relationships with the most significant people in our lives often leave us hurt and frustrated and we don't know why. More often than we care to admit our lives are filled with pain, anger, depression, or guilt. Inside we cry out:
%*?! WHY ?!*%
The answer to that "why" lies in the reason we were created God made us to have a personal, loving relationship with Jesus Christ. Then out of that loving relationship would flow the power to have loving, meaningful relationships with the people around us. But we've turned our backs on our relationship with Jesus and then wonder why we have no ability to make our personal relationships with others (or even ourselves) work right.
They never will! Jesus didn't create us to live on our own, without Him. Life apart from Him DOES NOT work! Life apart from Him makes us sick! Jesus said two really important things about life:
In John 14:6 He said:
"I am the way and the truth and the life."
And in John 10:10 He said:
"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
Jesus Christ is the source of LIFE!
He came into the world so we could experience life and live it to the MAX! He wants us to have a happy, meaningful existence full of value and purpose!
Do you feel that your life is "full" and has "value" and "purpose"?
If not, perhaps you should begin by looking at your relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus loves you! He wants to heal you. But not just your body, He wants to heal your relationship with Him too! He wants to heal your soul.
Isaiah the prophet, in the Old Testament, was writing about Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53:2-12) when he said:
"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth...For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and...makes his life a guilt offering...After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
We all turned our backs on God, which is why we so often feel like:
But, because God loved us so much, it says in John 3:16-17 that He:
"...gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him."
We all have to choose what: we can either choose God's wrath and death; or we can choose eternal life. Romans 6:23 says:
"The wages of sin is DEATH. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
John 3:36 says:
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
There is only one way to experience real "life"; and that is to turn to Jesus Christ and establish a loving relationship with Him.
God promised LIFE to those who would reach out and embrace it. But, that's where the problem often lies. Because of our own stubborn pide, or simply our indifference, we refuse to reach out for it. Experiencing LIFE means humbling ourselves and saying,
"Jesus, I'm sorry for my sins; please forgive me, and heal me. I know I've sinned against you. Please come into my heart and be the Lord of my life."
If we do that, God has promised in John 1:9 to be:
"...faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Because: "the LORD...heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."
When we humble ourselves and receive Jesus Christ we can say with the Psalmist in Psalm 147:3:
"O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. O LORD, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit."
And we can praise God from the depths of our being and say,
"Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--who forgave all my sins and healed all my diseases, who redeemed my life from the pit and crowned me with love and compassion..."