Healed and Whole

As we say so long to 2023, I bet most of us are hoping for a better, more prosperous, more healthy, more peaceful year ahead. One way to move forward is to seek healing from the various things we've suffered through, whether those things happened recently or years ago. I truly believe God wants each of us to be healed physically, emotionally, and spiritually. That doesn't always involve a miraculous healing. In fact, most of the time it involves a lot of hard work and support from others. I believe that is because we must walk through the fire to be refined by. 

John 17: 11-19 (TPT) Jesus traveled on toward Jerusalem and passed through the border region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered one village, ten men approached him, but they kept their distance, for they were lepers. They shouted to him, “Mighty Lord, our wonderful Master! Won’t you have mercy on us and heal us?” When Jesus stopped to look at them, he spoke these words: “Go to be examined by the Jewish priests.” They set off, and they were healed while walking along the way.  One of them, a foreigner from Samaria, when he discovered that he was completely healed, turned back to find Jesus, shouting out joyous praises and glorifying God. When he found Jesus, he fell down at his feet and thanked him over and over, saying to him, “You are the Messiah.” This man was a Samaritan. “So where are the other nine?” Jesus asked. “Weren’t there ten who were healed? They all refused to return to give thanks and give glory to God except you, a foreigner from Samaria?” Then Jesus said to the healed man lying at his feet, “Arise and go. It was your faith that brought you salvation and healing.”

Jesus wanted to heal these men, but he required them to "go to be examined by the Jewish priests." That would have been a terrifying and difficult thing to do since they were considered unclean. They had to walk in obedience toward that difficult situation for the healing to occur. And because they did as Jesus told them, we're told all 10 were physically healed.

It seems terribly ungrateful for only one man out of ten to return and say “thank you” to Jesus for healing them of leprosy, especially since leprosy was painful, caused disfiguration, and anyone suffering from it would be shunned by their communities. Not only were these men healed physically by Jesus that day, but their daily lives would also have improved greatly. They should have been so grateful!

These verses do a great job of exposing the difference between healed and whole.

All ten lepers were healed physically after obeying Jesus' command to go to be examined. But the one who returned to say thank you, was also whole. Verse 19 says, “Arise and go. It was your faith that brought you salvation and healing.”

Gratitude was the only difference.

If you desire to be healed and whole in 2024, gratitude is vital.

We must remember that God’s love and grace changes everything for us. No matter what life throws at us, that truth doesn’t change. To be healed and whole, we must live in a place of continual thankfulness, serving and loving the Lord regardless of the trials we face.

We are never healed by our own merits, and we often must walk through the fire to reach that healing. But remembering the generosity of our Father and how far He has brought us, will allow us to be healed and whole.

May 2024 be one full of healing, wholeness, peace, and gratitude for you and your family! 

Tori