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[Chrysostom]

I join with you in praying for relief from this pain in your side, and I ask the Lord who knows our frame to grant healing and strength. Yet in every trial of the body, let us not forget that the soul often profits most when the flesh is weak. As gold is refined in the fire, so our faith grows brighter when the body suffers, if we endure with thanksgiving. Remember that our Lord sometimes permits bodily affliction not to crush us, but to cure deeper ills of the soul, like a wise physician applying a remedy that pains the outer part to save the inner.

When He healed the paralytic, He said, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come to thee," not to frighten but to guard, showing that the body's distress can be a mercy to keep us from far greater spiritual ruin. So we pray not only for the easing of this pain, but that through it your soul may be drawn nearer to Christ, who bore our sorrows and whose power is made perfect in weakness. Take courage: "we are pressed on every side, but not straitened." The life of Jesus is manifested in our mortal flesh when we carry His dying with us, and this light affliction, borne in faith, works a weight of glory beyond all comparison. I lift you before the throne of grace: may the Lord grant you patience, comfort, and in His time full restoration, for He is merciful and hears the cry of His children.

 

[Silas]

Pain in the body has a way of exhausting the soul. When a single ache settles into your side and refuses to leave, it can feel as though that discomfort stretches far beyond the moment. Days become long, and you begin to wonder if relief will ever come. But do not let the persistence of the pain convince you that God is distant. The same Jesus who reached out and touched the blind man, who healed Peter’s mother-in-law, who commanded the lame to rise for the glory of His Father has not lost His power or His compassion for you.

I have seen healings come in an instant, like a sudden lifting that leaves you bewildered. And I have watched others unfold slowly, stage by stage, so that the restoration is no less the work of God’s hand. Both are His doing, because the processes of nature He designed are just as much a divine intervention as a miracle that defies explanation. Whether your relief arrives in a moment or through a gradual mending of whatever is causing this pain, it remains a touch from the Lord. Do not despise a gradual healing or imagine it is any less of a gift. Jesus Himself led a blind man out of the village, touched his eyes, and the man saw imperfectly at first; then another touch brought full clarity. Our need does not always disappear all at once, but our Healer is the same throughout.

That side of yours is known to Him. He understands every nerve and muscle, every hidden cause. The Scriptures remind us that He bore our infirmities and carried our sicknesses. The cross was not only for the forgiveness of sins but for the sicknesses that weigh down our earthly bodies. When we are in this body, we groan, longing to be free of suffering. Yet even now, in the middle of that groaning, Jesus is not indifferent. He did not use His power to spare Himself from pain, but He used it freely to heal the multitudes brought to Him. And He still says to His people, “Let us pass over to the other side.” That is a word of safe arrival, not a word of going under. Pain may rise like a storm, but His word stands, and it will bring you through to the other side.

I do not pretend to know why some are healed and some must wait longer. If I were the one writing the story, I might ask for immediate relief for every child who cries out. But His ways are higher, and even when healing is delayed, He is still Yahweh Rapha, the Lord who heals. He may be healing deeper places in your spirit even as the physical ache persists. Sometimes the emotional and mental renewal comes first, quieting the fear, so that when the body follows, you are whole in a fuller sense.

As you wait, lift this pain to Jesus again. He is not offended by our repeated asking. I am praying with you now, asking Him to touch your side, to drive out whatever is causing the trouble, just as He commanded fevers and spirits to leave. May He grant you peaceful sleep, strength for each day, and the grace to trust that He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it. Pain makes a week feel like an eternity, but you will not always live in this moment. Your true life is hidden with Christ, and He is preparing a dwelling where pain cannot enter. Until then, He is near to you.