"Physician, Heal Thyself!"

What's this About?

So last week I was watching ER (great to see the return of Dr. Mark Greene - ER's just not the same without him), when something odd happened. The show started with a black screen. Then, they flashed up Luke 4:23: "Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum." I know it's wrong, but I swear at that moment the TV was literally screaming at me, and thank goodness I was listening! "Physician, heal thyself!" That's exactly what I have been needing to do here of late. Why? Well, that's not important. What I want this blog to focus on is the actual healing process. After all, that's what my life is supposed to be about right now, isn't it? Aren't I supposed to go in every day and "heal" people? (For the record, I make no claims that the medical profession truly "heals" people. I'm a firm believer that there is only one true Healer, the Lord God Almighty.)

So I started to dissect that phrase. If we are to "heal" ourselves, and God is the only true Healer, then that command is telling us to turn our lives over to Jesus so that we may be healed. Now I know you're saying, "But, Drew, you've already done that." And you are correct. But it's not a one-and-done phenomenon. Yes, as soon as we surrender our lives to Jesus he fills us. But, the "process" part is all about continuing to give Him more and more of ourselves. We cannot grow complacent. Complacency leads itself to stagnation. And stagnation leads itself to ruin. Water will stay clean so long as it is flowing, but as soon as the stream stops and the water pools, bacteria and insects will begin to populate.

You see, I had hit my own dam of sorts. I was content with enjoying where I was, doing what I was doing, and living life as I had been living it since I gave myself over to Christ. But in order to heal myself, I have to be continually striving for new heights, for new summits, for new horizons.

So as I was reading through the Word this morning, I had a few verses that really stood out to me. As I go through this process, these are the verses that I want to share here and to meditate upon.

Psalm 116:6 "The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me."

When reading this verse, the word that jumped off the page was "simplehearted." The word "simple" has unfortunately grown to have a very negative connotation in our world. If someone has a simple mind, they lack intelligence. If someone has a simple plan, it lacks development. If someone writes a simple sentence, it lacks a conjugation uniting multiple ideas. You see? Simple things lack.

That's not the case, however. When reading this, it hit me that, yes, being simplehearted means having only one thing in your heart. It's not about you, the people around you, the world around you. It's about Jesus. You love Him. Period. Now, with that, you love the things He loves. You love the people He loves. But all of that stems from loving Him. Too often I find myself loving the things He loves and loving the people He loves without focusing on just loving Him. It's easy to do that. He wants me to love someone? I love them. But now they become the focus, not Him.

I was talking with a friend the other day when all of the sudden the following phrase came off my fingertips (I was texting): "I don't want to know the big picture, cause if I do, I'll focus on the painting instead of the painter." Now I know I'm not talented enough to come up with something like that, so I know that God was speaking to me through my own words. "Focus on ME, the painter," He was saying. "Focus."

Ezekiel 36:24-28 "For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God."

What an awesome description of salvation! Just picture that process. God is literally removing me from the distractions of the world and bringing me into His fold. He is washing me clean of
not only what I've done in the past, but also washing those ideas and actions off of the pedestals they held in my life.

But the next statement is where things started to tie together: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." So here we see God putting a new heart in me, and we just learned that He protects the simplehearted, so doesn't it follow that when He puts that heart in me, He puts it there with only one focus - He and his Son?

Now as that heart lives inside of us and becomes a part of us, our bodies naturally start to make it impure. When someone receives a heart transplant, their body inevitably wants to reject their new organ. Well, our bodies do the exact same with the heart God gives us. Our body attacks it, trying to draw it's focus away from that for which it was created. So just as a patient will take medications to prevent rejection, so must we take proactive, preventative measures to protect our new heart. Lack of doing so - or complacency - leads to rejection, which leads to failure of the organ and death.

James 1:17-18 "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created."

There's no denying that the heart God gives us is a gift. What's the first thing you do on Christmas morning when you are handed a present? (Well, after you shake it and try to guess what it is based on whatever means possible.) You look at the tag to see who it's from. Well, in this statement, we are seeing God's "From:" tag: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights."

Isn't that better than getting something from Aunt Bethany in Chicago? As I read this verse, I was overwhelmed by the image of the "heavenly lights." Such awe. Such wonder. I mean, I know I would be completely overtaken by such radiance. And it is from there - not Chicago, not Tulsa, not Des Moines - that the good gifts come. Aunt Bethany will age, and she may move, but God Above never changes - He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And, let's be honest. Why would he want to change?

Final Thoughts

God has given me a direct command. It is time to heal myself. And the only way to do that is through Him. He is the Healer. I hate that the song "Healer" has a tarnished reputation now, but the message does stand true. "I believe You're my Healer. I believe You are all I need. I believe You're my Portion. I believe You're more than enough for me. Jesus, You're all I need." Yes, Lord, You are all I need. So now I rest in who You are - not a complacent rest, but a rest that has me at peace with where You will lead me, with where You will carry me.