“Forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”—Matthew 6:14
I will be honest. I am trying to understand why and how some people are healed and others are not.
But I know healing is a reality in the Kingdom of God here on earth and in heaven. And the Kingdom is “at hand,” Jesus reminds us (Matthew 3:2).
Understanding the complexities of healing is challenging. But I am convinced that forgiveness is the key to a healing life.
We usually think of physical healing, but emotional and mental healing are also vital to health and well-being. The healing of our minds can lead to the healing of the body.
A successful man or woman can go through life looking like they have it all together. Happy, prosperous, church involvement, good friends, and family. But underlying all that lurk the enemies: fear, anxiety, stress, and worry eating away at the soul and fueling physical ailments that range from headaches and ulcers to cancer, heart disease, and other afflictions.
At the core, there is often a need to forgive or be forgiven.
A quick Google search will find numerous websites from reputable medical clinics, like Johns Hopkins Medicine, that tout “The Healing Power of Forgiveness.”1
Scripture is full of exclamations like Psalm 103: “Praise the Lord, my soul, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.”
Healing, the core of the Gospels, is about repentance and forgiveness.
Notice that almost every time we read, “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” the exhortation to “repent” is part of the deal. It is time to turn around and change our actions and thinking.
When we repent, we seek forgiveness. We need forgiveness for things we have done, said, and thought. For crossing boundaries God set in place, defying His Word, and opening ourselves up to demonic strongholds, addictions, temptations, and behaviors.
We need to give forgiveness for the violence, abuse, pain, trauma, and hurts that have scarred our lives. Sometimes, we need to forgive ourselves for self-inflicted pain.
Sometimes we don’t know what we need.
Sometimes circumstances are beyond our control.
Jesus died to heal us and set the example of love and forgiveness. Even as He suffered, He prayed, “Father forgive them” (Luke 23:34).
The master key is to clear the path between others and us, to offer the key to freedom by forgiving others their trespasses, just as we are forgiven.
1. Johns Hopkins Medicine http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/publications/johns_hopkins_health/summer_2014/the_healing_power_of_forgiveness
