I've been thinking about illness and healing in the New Testament quite a bit lately. It's probably because I've been ill and reading the New Testament. Healing is something that the disciples and Jesus do throughout the New Testament, but others can also heal in the name of Christ. Then when Christ heals he will in conjunction with this sometimes cast out devils, sometimes forgive sins, and sometimes neither, he just heals them.
Mental illnesses seem to be the ones that need devils cast out of the people who are sick with them, while just healing, or forgiving sins seems to be for physical illnesses. I was just thinking about how many mental illnesses are still influenced by evil spirits today. We have a few people in my family, including myself with mental illnesses including depression, PTSD and bi-polar, and while they may be influenced by evil spirits, most of the time, those that are sick are being influenced by their brain-chemistry, their past or other things that may have happened to them. I suppose their experiences or condition have made them weaker, and that is how the evil spirits began to influence them. This is all conjecture really though. Even with priesthood blessings and faith, it still takes those who are sick a long time to heal, if they ever completely heal. Sometimes the real gift they are given is the ability to be strong enough to live with the disease. Then those who do not have faith don't ever really recover. They find ways to live. They try to forget the things that made them this way. They try to forget their problems. They find ways to try to find happiness in life.
I was just really thinking about the difference between mental and physical illnesses and how Christ could heal them all, but in different ways. Then I suppose he heals everyone of us in different ways. His ways are not our ways and healing mental illnesses is more of a process these days, even with the diivine help of the Lord. But learning to perfect ourselves and be more like Jesus is also a process. We all seem to learn and heal and grow line upon line, precept on precept.
I am very glad the Lord healed on the Sabbath. Being sick on the Sabbath is not fun, and I'm very glad blessings and other ministrations are welcomed and encouraged on the Sabbath.
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about small things, nothings and the somethings in between
1 comment:
Hm... Mental health is certainly something of personal significance to me... and I doubt either of us knows much about the other's story (and I don't think this is the right venue to get into it if it even matters).
I just want to say that I try not to attribute the fact that my struggles will be life-long to the fact that I have insufficient faith to be healed. I can finally see why it was and is necessary for me to experience these things in life - unfortunately, it was the only way I could have learned some things, and I suspect you've seen some of the same in yourself.
But there are ways in my faith has healed and still continues to heal me. In my darkest and most feeble hours, the sliver of faith I still retained was my salvation from myself. In my struggles every day, the hope I have in Christ and the Gospel is what helps to bind up and strengthen my broken heart.
We each have our afflictions that will try us to our limits and push us far beyond what we ever thought we could handle. Tell me of one prophet or one person you truly admire who has not faced significant, life-changing pain in life. I can't think of anyone.
Through our sorrows, we are healed. My experiences have broken my heart into a trillion pieces and I thought I could not survive. However, I think those pieces were just a shell, and as life unfolds and I experience pains again, another fragment falls revealing a softer, kinder heart beneath.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that we are not always healed from our illnesses, but sometimes our greater (and perhaps unkonwn) ailments are healed through them.
:)
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