Beyond the Joy of Healing

Today, I'll share a devotional I just submitted to Thrive, a ministry serving women who are mistering globally. It will be a while before they publish it on their website. The topic is healing, and I was able to reflect back on my husband's cancer journey. 

Sometimes bad news (whether near or far) comes knocking, erupting any calm you previously enjoyed. In the case of a troubling health diagnosis, there are often ongoing waiting periods for testing and treatment procedures. Uncertainty swirls through the air and it’s hard to breathe in peace. We don’t know if healing will come this side of eternity. We wait and hope, then wait some more, trying to hang on and go about our lives as best we can. Physical healing is the one petition we fervently set at the forefront of our prayers once the knowledge of bad news has arrived at our doorstep. That is a good thing. God, in His goodness, knows but is also interested in our sanctification through every step of the journey. Jude writes to those who are sanctified, preserved, and called; in other words, you and I. We labor and serve, and it can feel like health issues aren’t supposed to happen because they stop us in our tracks or create what we perceive as a red light to the mission. Whether it’s physical health or spiritual troubles, Jude exhorts us as believers to guard and hold the precious love of God closely. His love fails not. He also says to look for the mercy of Jesus our Savior. It stretches gloriously across heaven and earth. The word look means to receive for yourself, to not reject, to admit in, expecting what is promised. Learning of cancer in my husband’s body moved me into driving the stakes of God’s love and mercy deeper and deeper into the soil of my very being. It was a wonderful help to receive encouragement from our support system, and from a close relationship with my husband, but my strongest line of defense was in staying grounded in the Lord and his work in me. God graciously chose to answer our prayers, and we received the good news with thanksgiving and celebration. My biggest takeaway from that experience was not only the joy of healing but rather, how much Jesus could be glorified in our lives through the entrance of that terrible news.