Healing for All
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? (Jeremiah 8:22)
Jer. 8:18-22, 30:10-22, 46:11; Matt. 9:12-18
What Is God Saying?
God yearns for the return of His people. They should come back to Him for He has healing for their wounds. ‘The dove, the swift, and the thrush observe the time of their migration but my people do not know the requirements of the Lord’ (Jer. 8:7).
"The prophets and priests all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious, saying Peace, Peace, when there is no peace" (Jer. 8: 10-11 ). They are putting band-aids on cancer. The real need is to know the real problem and then apply the real solution. Find a doctor who knows the problem and will treat the sickness. "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" Such was the lament of Jeremiah.
How Does This Apply To Us?
It is the cry of many sin-sickened souls. Symptoms of sickness and the decision to take the necessary steps are the first steps in the direction of a cure. We have healing for the soul's most loathsome disease. We have a Physician who cares and cures. He knows and wants us to see that band-aids won't do when radical surgery is indicated. Trying to talk ourselves out of sickness into health, thinking better thoughts, or turning over a thousand new leaves, will not deal with the problem. Jesus took a radical step at Calvary. There He went to the root of the problem—sin, and the death it brings. Hear and trust the great words of Peter, "He bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds we are healed" (I Pet. 2:24).
Come to prayer with the assurance that the greatest balm, the love of Jesus, can heal the greatest sickness, sin. That is the foundation of prevailing prayer. No problem too great, no burden too heavy, no situation too hopeless, no loved one too far gone. There is a Balm in Gilead. There is a Physician there.
Pray With Me
0 God, from many discouraged hearts this cry has risen. On other days, it has risen from mine.
What could reach the depth of my need? It was beyond the reach of human understanding and help. Who could heal my sickness? Who could lay the soothing salve to a troubled mind and a distressed soul?
Yes, Lord, these questions have raced unanswered through my mind. But now You have shown to me that there is a Balm in Gilead and there is a Physician there. There is healing. There is a Healer.
The Cross is healing and Christ is the Healer. There and by Him my soul finds relief There and by Him, hope comes like the dawn of a new day. There and by Him I find strength and direction to walk in a new way.
Stolen pleasures turned to pain have been turned again to the holy pleasure of walking in Your light. Insistence on personal liberties has been turned again to that mature freedom that comes from obeying Christ. Pride turned to humiliation has been turned again to humility that conquers because its strength is not in self but in the Savior.
So I am delivered from the sickness of disloyalty and pride by the healing and the Healer of Calvary. For this, I am thankful today. By this, I can face tomorrow. About this, my ransomed soul will sing forever.
In the name of the Healer and by the grace of His healing. Amen.
Moving On In The Life Of Prayer
Let us come to prayer in the confidence of knowing that the great Physician can put the Balm of His healing love on every wound. Trust in His wisdom and accept His remedy. We will pray with assurance about our own needs and the ones we suspect or know in others. Prayer is an avenue of healing. Prayer is the path that leads to the Balm of Gilead and the great Physician.
