To Be Made WellSample

How can I experience healing in my body? In our world of modern technology, we tend to look to doctors, therapists, and medication to alleviate pain and cure disease. As helpful as these professionals and treatments often are, many of us still endure ongoing physical pain or recurrent illness that signals more than a need for Advil or the proper stretching techniques. These places of ongoing physical pain can be invitations to go to God for deeper healing. In Mark 5, this bleeding woman comes to Jesus. Despite the crowds, despite her shame and fear, Mark tells us, “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering” (vv. 27–29). This woman comes to Jesus in her wounded body. We, too, are invited to bring our bodies to Jesus. But what does this look like now? One way we come to Jesus in our bodies is through prayer. We can prayerfully pause and consider whether God wants us to notice any spiritual or emotional connection to the pain we hold in our bodies. We can ask whether there is any way for us to pray about the part of our body that is hurting. For example, when we find our shoulders tight with worry, we can ask Jesus to carry our burdens. When our feet ache, we can ask the Spirit to give us a firm place to stand. Another way to bring prayer to our bodies is to literally use our bodies in prayer. We can kneel, raise our hands, speak or sing out loud, or walk or stand as ways to use our bodies to indicate the posture of our hearts. Jesus invites us to bring prayer into our bodies so that we can receive his healing love. Questions for reflection: Are there any areas of chronic pain or illness in your body that you want to bring to God in prayer? What might God want to tell you about yourself through how your body feels today? Prayer: Lord, we come to you with bodies in pain. We also come to you with bodies that do amazing things. Thank you for our bodies. Please heal us in every way. Amen.