We live in a day and age when we recognise the great strides that have been made on many disciplines that have resulted in many people being healed who would otherwise have died, and that is never clearer than in this present pandemic.
But the Bible speaks of the need of everyone to be be healed. God is not primarily concerned with how disease free our bodies are, but how sin free our whole being is. And the biggest problem a person faces is in first recognising how self-destructive that sin virus is. I guess it is a little like having contracted Covid-19 but before the symptoms become outwardly evident. You may feel fine, perhaps just a little cough but inside there is a time bomb getting ready to explode.
The wonderful news that God’s Word brings is that there is a cure to the sin virus, and it is 100% guaranteed, and many of the Proverbs speak to it.
Consider Proverbs 4:20-23 for example. The fourth chapter starts by setting the scene: it is as a father speaking to his son and reasoning with his son why he should listen to, and obey, God’s Word. When we arrive at v20 onwards this is what we read:
Pro 4:20 My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
Pro 4:21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.
Pro 4:22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.
Pro 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
The style here is somewhat different from that used in the proverbs we looked at thus far. It is more direct instruction, but see what the writer is saying –
We start life being dead! We need something to happen to us in order to bring us to life. v22 For they are life to those who find them, v23 for from it flow the springs of life. This is the hidden damage inside each of us caused by sin, we are born spiritually dead and we continue spiritually dead and many go through life to death without ever coming spiritually to life! And tragically they don’t even recognise it. They may sense a lack of real peace, a lack of certainty concerning the future, a lack of real joy that carries them even through the hardest times, but nothing more.
BUT says the writer, it doesn’t need to be like that! The key is in a word that occurs twice in these verses “heart”. The heart is the Hebrew idea of where the “true you” is. It is the source of your being, the place that directs all your thoughts and emotions, and to start with it is totally damaged. BUT 20-21 we can do something about that, we can take God’s Word to heart – we can hear what God says in the Bible, by faith we can then put our trust in what He says, and as we do that, God so works in us that His Word shapes our heart to start working aright.
And that v22 brings life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. In other words it brings spiritual life to them and they start to live spiritually – in the words of Jesus they are “born again”. And it isn’t only the heart that is changed, did you notice that? There is total healing for all of a person – their mind, their spirit, their conscience, their sins are forgiven, they are made children of God, they are adopted by the Father, they are made new creations.
And that heart that was once so damaged that it brought forth no life, now works aright and provided v23 you guard it well, or better provided you allow Holy Spirit to guard it well as He continues to shape your mind, emotions, and life it will be a source of life within you. from it flow the springs of life.
Friend, are you healed? If not, then what holds you back? And if you are, you have so much to praise God for, and so much to share with others – that they too may be brought to life!