Every Longing Heart
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 35
We are all so broken. Our bodies, our minds, our souls, our relationships… they all fracture in one way or another. We’ve already discussed the reason for all this brokenness, but that understanding doesn’t (typically) make the pain go away as we walk through this life. We still cry out with Jeremiah,
“Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.” (Jeremiah 17:14 NIV)
Nearly every writer in the Scriptures references physical ailments. Eve had pain in childbirth, Job scraped his wounds with pottery shards; Sarai was barren; Esau was hungry; the Egyptians were plagued; the liberated Hebrew slaves complained of thirst and hunger; Moses stammered; Hezekiah was sick; Eglon was morbidly obese; Saul was tormented; David cried out from the wilderness; Nebuchadnezzar went insane; the besieged Israelites were famished; Jeremiah lamented; Jesus’ contemporaries sought Him for healing; and Paul enumerated his sufferings. Of course, I could go on. The point is that physical brokenness is part of the fallen human experience and important enough to be recorded in the narrative of Scripture. And here is the beautiful reality: God heard each cry. David knew,
“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” (Psalm 56:8 NIV)
After the Hebrew people were delivered from Egypt and crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, they journeyed for three days, which is the length of time a human can survive without water. God then miraculously provided them with life-giving water and specifically spoke about protecting them from disease. He called Himself “Jehovah Rapha,” the God who heals.
God’s heart is for wholeness. We, like those mentioned above, are often fixated on our bum knee, pounding head, or failing pancreas, and that’s okay. But God’s concern is for entire wholeness — our bodies AND our souls. The Messiah came to heal broken bodies, broken minds, and broken souls. He will come again to heal broken systems, a broken world, and a disrupted communion with our Creator. We already have eternal life when we accept Jesus as Lord, but we eagerly await wholeness in glorified bodies and a healed creation.
“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings” (Malachi 4:2 NIV)
“In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed…” (1 Corinthians 15:52 NIV)
“The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves. . . groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:21-23 NIV)
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIV)
We had a ministry friend who contracted polio as a child and was burdened with leg braces and crutches the remainder of his life. I remember a sermon he preached in which he said, “I am grateful for the life God gave me, but when I reach heaven, I’m throwing these things off as fast as I can!” He died on September 26th of this year, and I know He ran into the arms of his Savior. Praise Jehovah Rapha!