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.