Healing 101, Part #3

Scripture gives us patterns, and good psychology often confirms them.

• Name → Reframe → Practice. Paul says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) gives simple tools: notice automatic thoughts, test them, replace them with truer ones, then practice new behaviors. Meta-analyses show CBT is effective for many anxiety and depressive disorders. This isn’t “mind over matter;” it’s training your mind to tell the truth and act on it. Pair prayer with practice.

• Confession and forgiveness. James says, “Confess your sins to one another and pray… that you may be healed” (Jas. 5:16). Confession integrates us—no more hiding. Forgiveness unclenches our hands so we can heal. Desmond Tutu taught that reconciliation is costly because it tells the truth and then forgives; South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission modeled national healing through hard truth and grace.

• Community restores dignity. In Mark 5, Jesus doesn’t whisper a miracle and walk away. He sees her. He speaks “Daughter.” In Ubuntu language, “I am because we are.” We heal as persons-in-community; isolation keeps us sick.

• God suffers with us. Japanese theologian Kazoh Kitamori wrote about “the pain of God”—a God whose love bears pain with and for us in Christ. A suffering-with-us God is not indifferent; God’s solidarity becomes our healing hope.

• Liberation and healing belong together. Latin American theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez speaks of salvation as integral liberation—God’s work in history to set people free into fuller life with God and neighbor. Healing includes freedom from systems and stories that crush us.

• Whole-person practices matter. Scripture affirms oil, prayer, and elders (Jas. 5:14–15). We can add meds, therapy, sleep, nutrition, movement, boundaries, gratitude, and breath prayers. These are not “less spiritual”—they are part of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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Healing 101, Part #2

A Short Theology of Healing

• Creation: We were made whole—shalom.

• Fall: Sin vandalized shalom; fracture entered bodies, minds, systems.

• Redemption: In Jesus, God takes our pain into God’s own life and begins mending everything—now in part, one day in full.

• Church: We’re a field hospital and a training kitchen for wholeness—practicing forgiveness, boundaries, truth, and love.

• Consummation: The story ends with healing for the nations (Rev. 22). We live toward that day.

Healing 101, Part #1

What Healing Is—and Isn’t

1. Healing is God’s will—because wholeness is God’s heart. Scripture paints God as the One who “heals the brokenhearted” (Ps. 147:3), binds up wounds (Isa. 61), and in Jesus brings good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed (Luke 4). Catholic priest Francis MacNutt spent his life reminding the church that healing prayer sits at the core of the gospel. God delights to heal—often, and in many ways—even as we honor the mystery when we don’t see what we hoped for.

2. Healing is multi-dimensional. In Mark 5, the woman doesn’t only get a medical miracle. She’s restored to community. Her shame is named and lifted. She becomes “Daughter.” That’s spiritual, emotional, social. That’s shalom.

3. Healing doesn’t erase scars; it reframes them. Thomas meets the risen Christ by touching wounds (John 20). Scars can become testimonies, not open wounds. Some relationships won’t be “fixed,” but you can be reconciled to reality, grieve what was lost, and live forward with wisdom and boundaries. That’s real healing.

4. Healing sometimes looks like endurance, wisdom, and new limits. Paul’s “thorn” didn’t vanish; grace met him in it (2 Cor. 12). Sometimes the deepest healing is courage, clarity, and community in the midst of the thing that doesn’t change.

5. Ultimate healing is promised—but not always on our timetable. Revelation ends with “the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22). Sometimes the final healing arrives in God’s presence. We say that with tenderness and hope, not as a cheap answer.