The Faithful and Sensible Steward: Healing the Brokenhearted

"And the Lord said, 'Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.'" Luke 12: 42-43 NASB

We've spent the last few days on these two verses. Just as the Army is "looking for a few good men," Jesus is looking  for faithful and sensible servants. (Click the links to read the previous posts in this series.) Yesterday, we learned that "giving rations" is a little like "feed my sheep." Doing the will of the Father was nourishment to Jesus and it should be to us, as well.

Jesus used an interesting word, therapeia, translated as "of his servants". It indicates care or attention for those in the household. The same word is also used to indicate healing. It's used in Rev 22:2 and translated as "healing", found in the leaves of the trees. 

In a way, the Lord looks for the faithful and sensible steward so that they can provide therapeia, care and healing, for others. Positions in the kingdom of God involve more than giving a moving speech or collecting an offering. Authority in the Kingdom of God (even as a steward) has healing and growth as its objective. 

If we are serving God, we should be helping others live a life of obedience and helping the brokenhearted find healing in Christ alone. 

To help others live obediently we must first live obediently ourselves.

To help the brokenhearted find healing, we must first find our own healing in Christ alone.

At last we've come to the thing that must be done. We, the followers of Christ, must first turn to Him for healing of our fractured, hurting hearts. When we allow Him to peel back the layers of hurt, the decades of injury (big and small), and apply the divine poultice of His love and grace, it changes everything. 

He reveals our weakness and becomes our strength. 

He uncovers our pain and becomes our comfort. 

He removes our fears and becomes our hope.

Who wants their weakness, pain, and fear uncovered? I do. Sounds crazy, I know, but it is only with the divine uncovering that I can know the depths of His strength, comfort, and hope. 

Allowing Christ's gentle fingers to touch my hurting spots is a delicious agony that brings the greatest joy, the sweetest peace, the most overwhelming love. 

This divine love story is worth the risk. Worth the pain. Worth the cost. Once we've embraced His love story, He equips us to help others in their search for healing, for we know the Healer.

When we know the delight of being healed, being whole, we will no longer willingly settle for unnecessary pain.

Our Lord is not seeking for wounded followers who refuse to be made whole. He's looking for disciples who will follow Him. Follow to healing. Follow to service.

Let's not stop short. Let's invite Him into our pain, into our struggle, and allow Him to do the unimaginable in our lives. Let's allow him to heal. Every single hurt.

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Our Father, we bring your our broken, hurting hearts and invite you to uncover, snip away the rottenness, and heal our wounds. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Teach us to Pray, part 17: Jehovah Rapha, Healer of the Brokenhearted

And He said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. 'Give us each day our daily bread. 'And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'" (Luke 11:2-4 NASB)

Jehovah Rapha

The previous post discussed the issue of physical healing and referenced the passage in James 5 about asking for healing. Healing our body is important, but we must remember that God is concerned about more than our physical ills. Scripture is replete with references to healing our emotional/spiritual hurts, as well. In fact, when Jesus presented His "mission statement", a quote from Isaiah 61, it included an important reference to healing emotional hurts but did not include a reference to physical healing (although He spent quite a bit of time healing and His healing ministry drew many people to faith in Him.) This is what Jesus said:

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted...

Isaiah 61:1 NASB

If you've ever been sick or ever had a loved one with a significant illness, you know the longing to be healed as well as the devastation that illness can bring. As much as health issues can disrupt our lives, why didn't Jesus include physical healing in His mission statement? Perhaps one reason is that a fractured spirit is, in some ways, so much more damaging to our lives than physical illness. 

What? At first glance, that doesn't sound right, does it? When we experience devastating illness but, in the midst of that illness, are able to maintain our faith, hope, love, and peace, it is much easier to find cause for rejoicing in our suffering, much easier to focus our attention on Christ. When we have a fractured spirit, when we are brokenhearted, all our focus revolves around the source of our sorrow, whether our body is injured or not. We take our eyes off our Lord and place them on ourselves and our situation. That kind of perspective can never bring peace or joy. 

Rapha shabar leb chabash atstsebeth

He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.

        Psalm 147:3 NASB

It is our Lord's desire that we have abundant life, regardless of the circumstances that come our way. When we experience the hurts of life that leave us brokenhearted, the place to turn is to our Lord, who heals our hearts and binds up our wounds. If I turn to our Lord, Jehovah Rapha, with my broken heart, will He heal it? Absolutely! 

There's one condition to that, however. Healing requires that I allow Him to heal. I have to be a willing participant in healing, and sometimes that participation involves things like forgiveness, relinquishing bitterness or anger, or turning from a sin long enjoyed (judgmental, critical spirit, pride, etc). Is it hard to give up my right to hurt feelings, unforgiveness, anger, or any other sin I've embraced long enough to feel comfortable with it? Of course, but the benefits are more than emotional. Sin can be like a ball and chain we drag around, weighting us down. The freedom that comes from soul-healing brings with it peace, joy, and a lightness of spirit that is worth having. In fact, it often brings an improvement in physical conditions, as well. 

There is one more reason that the emphasis is on healing the brokenhearted rather than the physically ill. God's perspective is eternal. To Him, a thousand years is like a day. He cares about everything that touches us, of course, but His great concern is for the eternal, and our bodies are anything but eternal. Our soul, however, is eternal. It is our soul that goes to heaven, not this frail body, and God is constantly working in us to prepare us for that glorious eternity in which we will know no sorrow, no pain, no suffering. 

If God's desire is to make our eternal soul fit for eternity, should that not also be our desire? Yes! How, then, do we hallow His name, Jehovah Rapha, Healer of the Brokenhearted? We look past our physical ills and allow Him to examine our hearts, to look for the hurts, the wounds that sin has caused (whether ours or that of someone else), and invite Him to heal what must be healed, change what must be changed, and, in the doing, create in us not just a clean heart, but a wholly healed heart, as well.