What does this mean to us? The work of the Great Physician on earth pre-figured the work of the Great Physician in the heaven. What He did to bodies, He does to souls. He opened the eyes of blind Bartimaeus; He offers new vision to those blinded by sin (Revelation 3:17–18). He healed the lame man; He offers us a new walk (Colossians 2:6; 3 John 1:4). He raised Lazarus from the grave; His ultimate offer to us is new and eternal life (1 John 5:13).

We can pray to God through Christ for healing from sickness and disease. We should not miss the obvious. Jesus is not here to lay hands on us and perform miracles—the age of miracles has ceased (1 Corinthians 13:8–10)—but divine providence is still effective in the healing of the sick. James instructed, “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. . . . Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:13–15).

God’s people believe in praying for the sick. The word sick (various forms) is found 111 times in the Bible. Ministering to the sick is given great emphasis in the Christian religion (Matthew 25:36, 43; Acts 20:35; 28:8–9; James 1:27; 5:14–15). Sit in any public service and you will hear both requests and specific prayers for those who are sick, diseased, injured, or facing surgery. Most of us have been the beneficiaries of such prayers; some of us are convinced that we are still in this world because of them.

We can trust Jesus with our innermost secrets. Doctors are often privy to information that no one else knows—age, weight, sexual history, personal medical problems. Even our close friends, spouses, and children may not know these details.

Jesus knows things about us that no one else does. He knows the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30), as well as all the thoughts inside them (Psalm 94:11; 139:2). “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). He knows all our secrets (Romans 2:16).

We can bring our innermost wishes in prayer before Him. We can pray in secret, and God will hear and answer them openly (Matthew 6:5–6).

We can bring our innermost sins to Jesus. The things we are most ashamed of doing—perhaps the sins of our youth (Psalm 25:7)—we can confess, even discuss, freely in His presence. We can bring to Him our private weaknesses (Psalm 90:8; 139:2-4), and the sin which doth so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1).

We can bring our nagging doubts to Jesus. This age is an age of questioning and unrest. Best-selling books and much-hyped “documentaries” boldly declare the Bible to be based on myths and lies. Many have had to fight their way through the fog and through the night to come to Jesus, the Light of the world (John 8:12). This is not altogether new. Every generation has had its doubting Thomases (John 20:24–28). And there is a little of doubting Thomas in most of us. Like the father of the sick boy, we may have a strange mixture of belief and unbelief: “And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). The only blemish on John the Baptist’s record is that, discouraged in prison, he began to doubt if Jesus were the Christ (Matthew 11:2–3). The Lord’s remedy for it was the same as the prescription for coming to faith in Him in the first place: an honest look at the evidence (11:4–6). Does the evidence sustain the fact that Jesus is more than a mere man? If it was worth believing in the first place, it is worth believing in the second place. Truth is never injured by investigation (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

In order to rise to our potential, we most discard the doubts that hold us down. When Peter doubted, he sank (Matthew 14:30). When faith in God goes, (1) man, the thinker, loses his great thought; (2) man, the worker, loses his greatest motive; (3) man, the sinner, loses his greatest help; (4) man, the sufferer, loses his securest refuge; and, (5) man, the mortal, loses his only hope.¹ Alexander Smith said,

The saddest thing that can befall the soul,
Is when it loses faith in God and woman,
. . . Lost I those gems,
Though the world’s throne stood open in my path,
I would go wandering back into my childhood,
Searching for them with tears. ²

The closer we get to Jesus, the more our doubts disappear (John 20:28; Psalm 19:1). Faith dispels heart disturbances (John 14:1; Psalm 5:11–12) and truth sets us free of doubt (John 8:31–32).

We can bring our personal troubles to Jesus. Jeremiah knew about trouble, but he found peace in His relationship with God. He said, “For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me” (Jeremiah 31:25–26). Jeremiah enjoyed peaceful sleep because he knew God approved of Him.

The Great Physician can cure insomnia, at least the kind caused by mental distress—what we might call a “guilty conscience.” When the mind is agitated, the body can’t rest. A quiet con-science is a blessing no amount of money can purchase. Ogden Nash said, “There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all.” Our consciences are given us to either “excuse” or “accuse” us (Romans 2:15). Seneca (c. 4 B.C.–A.D. 65) said, “Every guilty person is his own hangman.” David knew what a guilty conscience felt like and begged to be rid of it. He wrote: “For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me” (Psalm 40:12–13).

Endnotes:

¹ Winkler, Wendell. Heart Diseases and Their Cure.

² Scottish poet (1830–1867). http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/alexander_smith_a001.htm.