How to Tend to the Roots

For two and a half years, I struggled with a chronic condition. Well, not just one condition, it was believed I had several. Some of them had names, some of them did not. Although I went from one doctor to the next, I was told, with frequency, you are an anomaly and we don’t have any idea what is wrong with you.

Many times their solution was to take this pill, or that pill or to go see this doctor or that doctor. They’d suggest not to do this anymore or try to see if this or that works. But most of the time it felt to me like the doctors I was seeing were just taking a shot in the dark. Hoping they could give me something to help the symptoms. But not a single one of them could figure out the root cause.

Until one day, I listened to a friend and took a chance on a naturopathic doctor. I went into it thinking, “Why not, what could be the worse thing that happens?” For two years, all I have done is gone from doctor to doctor. Same answers. Same results. No hope.

I really felt like the women with the blood issue. Do you know her? She is in several of the gospels, but we’ll go to Luke 8:42-48 to hear her story.

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

Me and the woman at the well, are so much alike. I can totally relate to her and what it feels like to not be able to find the right person to heal you. Although mine did not last twelve years, Praise God, it did at times feel like it. I’d go through times where I felt like I was experiencing joy even in the midst of my struggle. Other times I found myself bitter and frustrated, constantly complaining in my head. I wrote about that here. I asked God to search my heart and reveal any sin issue I may have which was causing the sickness. I asked people to pray and lay hands on me for healing. I was anointed with oil. I spent time with God every morning. But never the less, the illnesses never left me and I went on in my pain.

On many occasions, I asked God, “I have faith like the woman with the blood issue and I am reaching out to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, why won’t you heal me?”

Can you relate? I wonder what you have in your heart, in your body, or going on in your life that you are seeking people or symptoms to provide your healing. Do you have a chronic condition like me, that feels like it is never going away? Do you have someone in your life you stay angry at because you can’t or won’t forgive them? Is there an addiction you can’t seem to conquer no matter what you do?

What do you do when you feel like you have done everything you are supposed to do but nothing seems to change?

Sometimes the issue we are trying to deal with can’t be addressed by tending to the symptoms alone. There is no pill to cure us. No special prayer we can pray.

Sometimes it takes addressing the problem from the root cause to open up the door for healing to come.

For me, God addressed the problem in two different ways. First of all, He led me to the naturopathic doctor who tested my food allergies, after months of telling doctors my flair ups happened when I was eating “clean” foods. It was this doctor who finally listened. Low and behold I had food allergies that were causing inflammation in my body. Stay away from the foods; lower the inflammation; healing happens.

Second of all, spiritually God had walked me through understanding how my “trial” was not a count against me, which was this little lie that had imbedded itself in my brain. In fact, I learned we bring glory to God in our sufferings. (Romans 5:3) So if I am to bring Him glory, should I not be okay in the suffering? Perspective changes everything.

The food healed my inflammation.
The Word healed my heart.

My path to healing may be different than yours. You can’t take what happened to me and just place it nicely into the crevices of your life and it will fit like a glove. Just like we could never take the story of the woman with the blood issue and make it fit perfectly with ours.

There is no one story that fits all, when it comes to healing.

But what I can tell you stands consist in every one of them…is that faith in God and trusting Him has a huge role to play in it.

There was nothing that either of us could do to heal ourselves of the sickness.
There was nothing the doctor’s could do to change our situation.
There was nothing our friends or family could do to make it better.

The only thing we had left was faith. Faith to know God is the Healer–Jehovah Rapha. The faith to believe He will guide our path of healing, in His time, in His way, and through His means.

And when it boils down to it, that’s the root of the issue.

It’s why Jesus said to so many people that received feeling, “Do you have faith?” or “It is by your faith you have been healed.”

God works in mysterious ways and I do still believe that healing can come instantaneously. But I also believe it’s just as glorifying to Him, just as miraculous, and amazing when He heals us over time. I believe sometimes the healing is even better than the instantaneous, because not only is the recipient healed of their physical ailments, but they receive spiritual blessings of seeing their long-term faith come to fruition.

 

What are you struggling with in your need for healing and addressing it through your symptoms rather than seeking God for the root cause?