Healing Power of Christ

Self-doubt

Insecurity

Low self esteem

Not feeling good enough

Failure

Sickness

Divorce

Grief

Depression

Anxiety

Pain

Addiction

Lack of faith

Peer pressure

I looked out at the group of young women I was speaking to. On the board I had with me, was a list of things that they were either going through or that they had seen friends go through. Even seeing that list, I knew it wasn’t a full and complete list of what these girls had experienced. As I looked at them I was overcome with an immense amount of love for them as I could see each one as the Lord saw them, as daughters of God. He loved them. He knew what they were going through. And He knew how to support and strengthen them.

I shared with this group of young women a story about a woman whom for 12 years suffered pain and sickness.

12 long years.

It was not a short amount of time that she spent suffering with this affliction, it was years that she suffered with it. She got to the point where she was willing to give up everything that she had to be rid of her affliction.

Everything.

Sometimes the struggles in life can be so difficult that we are willing to give up so much in order to find relief. Like this woman we may turn to many different “physicians” and sources to help us find the healing that we seek.

This woman who suffered with this sickness for 12 years is found in Mark 5. She suffered for so long and sought out peace from that suffering in many ways. In verse 26 it says that she, “suffered many things of many physicians.” The treatments themselves were causing her to suffer as well.

Sometimes we do things to numb the pain, to keep ourselves shielded from things we don’t really want to experience. Yet, this very thing can either harm us even more, or it just prolongs the pain we are already feeling. We might turn to addictive substances, which in turn, cause us to become dependent on them, both physically and emotionally. Or perhaps, we distract ourselves, pushing the emotional pain out of our conscious thoughts, trying to make it go away by just not thinking about it. And that can be okay for a little while, sometimes we need a break, but the longer we do so, the more depressed we may become, and we may end up suffering even longer than if we had accepted the pain for what it is.

Pain is part of the healing process, it allows us to know that there is something going on. In the case of grief it reminds us of our love for the person we do not have in our lives. In this case it can get easier in our lives, but only when we allow ourselves to mourn, and allow the healing of love to occur.

But it can take time, give yourself the patience that you need, the Lord is patient as well and will guide you. Trust in Him, listen to Him.

The woman in Mark 5, with an “issue of blood,” was really trying everything she could to rid herself of the pain she was experiencing, yet it was still there. In fact it, “grew worse.”

Then something beautiful occurred.

In verse 27, “When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.”

She heard about the Savior. And she pushed her way through the “press.” Meaning that it was crowded. Christ was surrounded by other people. Yet this woman said, “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” So, she pushed through and persevered.

After 12 years of suffering and seeking a cure, she was still open to hope, she was still moving forward. That doesn’t mean that she didn’t have periods of doubt, that she didn’t feel hopeless at times. We all go through such times. Yet, something was sparked within her to help her believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior. And she believed that all she had to do was touch his clothes.

It starts with a desire. A desire to believe. That is where faith comes from. Then, as we plant that seed of desire in our hearts and nourish it (Alma 32), that seed begins to grow into the faith that allows us to be healed. It is up to us to draw close enough, like the woman in Mark 5 did, to be healed by the Savior.

And here’s the amazing thing, we can be healed from any emotional wound because of the Savior. It doesn’t necessarily mean that all of our problems will go away, but what it does mean is that the Lord will help us to bear our burdens. He will give us the strength to overcome them. It may not happen in the timing that we want or even in the way that we want, but healing does occur and we do end up having the strength within, because He knows what we are going through, and He knows how to strengthen us.

In Alma 7:11-12 it says,

 “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”

Christ knows what we feel, because He has felt it too.

He knows.

And because He knows, we can turn to him, lay it all down at His feet, reach out to Him and tell Him all we are feeling, struggling with, and He will help us to have the strength we need to overcome. Because He experienced it all and because He overcame it all, He will give us of His strength, and through it we will be able to bear our burdens.

In Mark 5:29 it says of the woman with the issue of blood, “And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.”

She was healed.

Here the story does not end.

Verse 30, “Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?”

Next, in verse 31, is the response of Christ’s disciples, “Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?”

Remember that Jesus was in a crowd of people. All around him there were people, touching him, pushing their way through the busy area. And yet, Christ noticed the woman, he noticed the one.

Just as he notices you.

Individually.

You.

Each of us matters to Him on an individual, personal level.

You matter.

You are loved.

You can be healed.

Christ sees you.

He is your Savior.

He knows you. He sees you. He believes in you.

Push your way through the “crowds” of pain. Push your way through the thoughts of disbelief and failed treatments. Push your way to Him.

No, it may not be easy. But, that does not mean it isn’t worth the effort.

It is so worth the effort.

As I continued speaking to that group of 12-18 year old girls that day, I erased the struggles, trials and heartaches that they experienced from the board. Then I wrote words such as these:

Peace

Love

Joy

Healing

Faith

Hope

Strength

All of these are made available to us through the Savior and through His healing power. He loves you and He can help you find the spiritual and emotional healing that you need.

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