In the four Gospel books of the New Testament, stories abound of the people Jesus miraculously healed. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John narrate the life and ministry of Jesus from different perspectives, each a little different in the stories they choose to tell. As Christ followers, we aim to live our lives modeling both what Jesus did and what the Bible tells us we should do as believers in God and followers Jesus. So when we look at the ways Jesus healed people from their illnesses, what do we see? Is there a place for medicines, supplements, and healing tools like CBD in addition to prayer and faith that we will be healed?
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First, there is no doubt that Christians should remember to turn first to the Lord in prayer when they are sick. James 5:13-16 says that prayer is the first line of defense when we are sick emotionally or physically.
Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
The opposite of this example is found in 2 Chronicles 16, when Judah’s King Asa turned his heart away from God. The chapter says that when Asa relied on the Lord, God delivered the vast armies of Ethiopia and Libya into his hands. When he turned away from the Lord, the king of Syria escaped Asa. King Asa went on to suffer a disease of the foot that became severe. Verses 12-13 say, “Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.”
Does this verse imply that we will die if we don’t ask God for healing in prayer? Is it telling us that we should never go to doctors? I don’t think so. It is a reminder that the Lord should have been the first choice for Asa. God does not force Himself into our lives. He created us with free will, but He wants to help us if we come to Him. Asa didn’t and effectively tied God’s hands from healing him.
King David, on the other hand, cries out repeatedly to the Lord for healing and praises God for His healing in Psalms 6, 41, and other chapters. In the books of Samuel and Acts, God dubs David, “a man after my own heart.”
When Jesus went about healing people during his time on earth, He repeatedly told people their faith had made them well. Yes, Jesus had the supernatural power to heal. But the sick offered themselves to Him for healing. They followed Him, tried to touch His clothes, even got lowered through a roof in the middle of Jesus’s teaching to get close to Him.
If you are sick and want to be healed, the Bible’s example is clearly to turn to the Lord first, expecting to be healed.
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The Bible doesn’t speak of faith and prayer as the only tools for healing. Jesus sometimes used elements in the act of healing. For one blind man, Jesus made a mud paste with His own spit, applied it to the man’s eyes, and he could suddenly see. In Jesus’s telling of the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, Christ detailed how the helper poured olive oil and wine on the man’s wounds and bandaged them.
The Bible speaks in other places of leaves, oils, and fruit as tools for physical healing. In Ezekiel 47:12, it says,
And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.
Timothy recommends wine for stomach ailments. In 2 Kings and in Isaiah, a cake of figs is used to help heal a boil, and Proverbs calls honeycomb “health to the body.” Many scriptures refer to anointing with oil to help cure sickness in the body. There are several references to balms and oils being used to soften wounds. Jesus also makes references to doctors in the gospels, saying that only the sick need doctors, not the well, and comparing himself as a physician of the soul.
At God’s Greenery, we are on a journey of learning about God and the ways He heals – body, mind, and spirit. We are also on a journey of learning about one of the natural tools God created that has recently been widely discovered – CBD oil. CBD oil, like the Balm of Gilead or sweet honeycomb, is helping many people heal from a wide variety of ailments. Studies are ongoing, but the personal stories are amazing. Stories of overcoming opioid addiction, helping an autistic child gain language and bodily control, watching a child become seizure-free, and achieving natural balance. It’s hard to discount someone’s firsthand account.
If you are experiencing a condition that CBD might help, seek God first. Pray and have faith that He can and wants to heal you. Ask Him to show you which tools to use on your path to wellness.
His healing journey for you might not be an instant cure. It may not look like a supernatural miracle. It might include healing tools like CBD, good nutrition, medicines, and physicians. It may even be a healing of your spirit and your relationships, not your body. Seek God. Consult your doctor. Be open to the tools God has created for us, like CBD.
“O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.”
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Written by: Natalie Gillespie
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