WHOLESOME HEALING
Jul 15, 2025
Psalm 41
WHOLESOME HEALING
I said, "O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you." (v.4)
Not every sickness arises from personal sin. Having said that, we should add that some sicknesses do indeed result from sin. This is clear from the prayer here which David makes from his sickbed. He is gravely ill, and his illness is related to his sin. Though he gives no detail of his sin or his sickness, we know he links the two together.
When we pray for healing of the body, do we also pray for healing of our spirit? When we look for a doctor, we should also be soul-searching for sin. Once I visited a patient in hospital who was deeply distressed. His speech had become incoherent, and his actions irrational and violent. Yet the doctors found nothing medically wrong with him. I calmed him down enough to hear him relate to me a sin in his life. The guilt of that sin had driven him to despair. After he confessed his sin, and we claimed together God's forgiveness for him, he soon recovered.
We cannot pray for healing of the body without considering first if the sickness comes from sin. We should ask the Lord to search our hearts and show us if we have sinned. If we sincerely are not aware of any known sin, we should leave the matter in God's hand. We should not torment ourselves by imagining or "inventing" sins to explain the illness.
It is cruel to torture a sick person with unnecessary guilt when he cannot in all honesty recall any sin related to his sickness. It is also wrong to accuse a sick person that he lacks faith when he does not seem to be getting better. His recovery does not depend on how large an amount of faith he can generate within himself. Healing depends on the Almighty God who works in answer to our prayer, feeble though the prayer may be.
When we ask the Lord for healing, let us ask for wholesome healing, the healing of the whole person. As James tells us, "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven" (James 5.15).
To be forgiven is to be healed.
