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- Pastor Ben
- Sep 8
Four Arenas of Healing (and How We Practice)
1) Physical Healing
We pray boldly for bodies. Sometimes God heals instantly (we’ve seen it). Sometimes through surgery, meds, rehab, and time. Sometimes not yet. Jesus heals Jairus’s daughter. He also gets tired and sleeps in boats. Both truths belong in church.
Practices:
Ask for prayer after service; we’ll anoint with oil and pray the prayer of faith (Jas. 5).
See your doctor. Take your meds. Ask God to bless your care team.
Offer your body as a living sacrifice—rest, move, hydrate, eat real food (Rom. 12:1).
2) Emotional Healing
“God heals the brokenhearted” (Ps. 147:3). Emotional healing takes time, safety, and truth.
Practices:
Name it. Journal what hurts. Invite a trusted friend to hear it without fixing.
Reframe it. Use a simple CBT move: “What’s the thought? What’s the evidence? What’s a truer thought I can practice?” Pair it with prayer: “Jesus, what do you say?”
Normalize help. Therapy is not a faith failure. It’s wisdom.
3) Relational Healing
Sometimes reconciliation looks like hugs and a shared meal. Sometimes it looks like a wise boundary and a calm heart. Healing here may mean we stop bleeding from old cuts and carry scars that don’t rule us.
Practices:
Truth + Grace. Speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15).
Boundaries. Jesus walked away from crowds and said “no” at times. You can too.
Repair when possible; release when necessary. “As far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom. 12:18).
4) Spiritual Healing
We’re integrated creatures. Shame, fear, and lies about God warp us. Spiritual healing is coming home to a God who calls you “Beloved.”
Practices:
Daily Examen (5 minutes). Where did I sense God? Where did I feel broken? What do I want to hand to God?
Breath Prayer. Inhale: “Jesus, Son of David…” Exhale: “…have mercy on me.”
Scripture as medicine. Try Mark 5 this week. Sit in the story. Imagine Jesus turning to you.
- Pastor Ben
- Sep 8
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.
- Pastor Ben
- Sep 8
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.
