Healing Cry

Written by Julie Cosgrove

 Are you facing a period of suffering in your life? Take this interactive online study: Finding Hope When It Hurts

“O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.” (Psalm 30:2)

Recently I was hospitalized for a staph infection that had invaded a simple scrape on my forehead. One side of my temple ballooned into a red, angry mass and the skin around my eye swelled shut. The swelling even spread to my cheek and jaw. The nurses responded by giving me IV antibiotics. However, when the doctor entered the scene he informed me that true healing would not occur unless the wound was lanced and drained.

The moment the wound was lanced I felt excruciating pain. Surprisingly, only a couple days later I was back to normal and the wound healed nicely. Even though I had recovered quite remarkably, the doctor warned me take oral antibiotics for a week to make sure any remnants of the infection were dealt with.

FORGIVENESS CAN BRING HEALING AND RESTORATION

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:43-45

The literal meaning of the word “forgiveness” in the New Testament is “to release; to hurl away; to free yourself.” The only way to break the chain or cycle of hurtfulness is to stop and ask forgiveness. This allows a relationship to start over and begin anew. The Russian writer, Solzhenitsyn, believed forgiveness is what truly makes us different from animals. Only humans can perform the most unnatural act of forgiveness that transcends the relentless law of nature.

A young Iranian lady, we’ll call Fatima, was full of hatred towards her mother-in-law. For fifteen years her mother-in law was her enemy and there was a great deal of enmity in the family.
Several times Fatima had even tried to kill her mother-in-law. Once she put poison in her soup hoping to kill her. The mother-in-law felt very sick after that and was taken to the hospital. The doctors took the poison out of her stomach and were able to save her life. 

How Father God Feels About You

by Jack Hayford

The story of the prodigal son, recorded in Luke 15, is often called the parable of the Father's heart. Jesus tells it, along with two other stories, not only in response to the seemingly "heart-less" religionists of His day, but also for you and me to know what is the Father's heart toward us.

Jesus tells of a man with two sons, one of whom asked for his inheritance in advance. The father gave it to him, and the son went out and squandered it, ending up in a pig sty. Finally, Scripture says, the young man "came to himself." He recognized the insensibility of the pathway he'd walked and how foolish he'd been to leave home. He returned, humbled, thinking he would ask to be just a servant at his father's place.