Life is a mixed bag. It can be a joyful adventure for some people, painful and depressing for others. Sickness, grief, and brokenness can bruise and wound the spirit; if we tried to withstand the pain on our own, we would crumble. Thankfully, we have promises of health and vigorous life from God; these eternal promises of healing and wholeness are better than any earthly health care plan, and they’re found in many places in His Word.

Illness can take many forms, and can attack the body or the mind. When we’ve tried all we could but got no results, we’ve finally reached our lowest point. We mustn’t just accept the situation, however, assuming God “must be trying to teach us something” by making us sick; that’s not His nature. God’s will for us is revealed in Jesus’ healing of the leper. “Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed” (Mark 1:40-42, NKJV).

Our mind plays a large part in our healing process, and doctors are discovering that patients who have strong faith are much more likely to recover. Jesus healed many people, including the woman with the bleeding disorder. The link between faith and healing is no coincidence. “And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague... And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague” (Mark 5:25-29, 34).

For those who are spiritually sick from sin in their lives, God provides healing in this area as well. Our thoughts can influence what happens in our body; wrong thinking can eventually make us physically sick. Jesus, also known as the Prince of Peace, can restore the peace of mind that sin steals from us. He was scourged and crucified to make healing available to everyone. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4, 5).

During His ministry, Jesus’ reputation for restoring the broken and missing parts of people, physically as well as mentally, spread far and wide. He eHHjjjjhealed paralytics, the blind and the lame, cast out the demons of mental illness, and even raised the dead. When sickness has stolen our health, or circumstances have robbed us of our peace of mind and emotional well-being, God restores it back to us and makes us whole again. “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12, AMPC). This is what He wants to do for each of us.