Healing and peace

[Chrysostom]

You ask for healing and peace, and rightly so, for these are gifts from the Father of mercies. Yet consider well what peace truly is. Not every calm is from God, nor is every separation an evil. Robbers have peace among themselves, and those who built the tower of Babel agreed together to their own ruin. True peace is found only when the diseased part is cut off, when the mutinous is removed, so that heaven and earth may be united. So seek first the peace that comes from holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

When you pray for deliverance from evil, remember that the gospel is the gospel of peace, and that peace with God means war with the devil. Do not fear, the victory is already won. But you must stand firm, your feet shod with the preparation of that gospel, which is nothing else than a most virtuous life. If you would have peace with all men, live peaceably as far as it depends on you, doing no harm to your faith. And if you are ill-treated, bear it nobly. Nothing shames an evildoer more than a soul that does not repay evil for evil, but blesses instead. This is above human understanding; it makes us near to God, and nothing delights Him so much as to remember no evil.

Yet take heed: peace in the Church must not be a mere form of words. When the priest says, “Peace unto all,” it is Christ who speaks. Do not receive that peace with your lips and then rend the body of Christ by discord with your brother. If your brother wars against you, be at peace all the more, for you imitate the Son of God, and great will be your reward. The kingdom of God is not a matter of comfort or outward ease, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That joy no one can take from you, unless you surrender it by malice or unforgiveness.

Therefore, seek healing for soul and body, but know that God often works healing through the sharp knife of separation from what is evil. If your eye offends you, pluck it out. There is a good division that delivers from wicked agreement. So be at peace with all, but never at the cost of holiness. Let your prayer be joined to a careful hearing of the word, fortitude, contempt for worldly things, and deliverance from every passion. Then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer is heard. The cry for healing and protection, the longing to be delivered from evil and surrounded by God’s own peace, these are exactly the things He invites you to bring before Him. He knows the weight you carry for yourself and your family, and He does not turn away from it.

Peace that stands firm, that keeps the heart and mind steady, begins with a soul that has been set right with God. Jesus made peace for us through His blood. When you have been reconciled to Him, that war within falls silent. You no longer run from Him or strive against Him; you belong to Him, and that brings a deep, settled calm. But there is more. After peace with God comes the peace of God, the kind that keeps you through the chaos of this world. That peace is not a onetime gift you set aside; it is a steady, present reality as your mind is stayed on Him. When the turmoil rises, when fear for your family’s safety or health presses in, to keep your thoughts fixed on the Lord is to let His perfect peace fill the space anxiety wants to occupy. He has promised that those whose minds rest in Him will know that keeping power.

About healing: I understand the urgent desire for it. We often think of it only as an immediate, dramatic change, but Scripture shows us something broader. Jesus healed in many ways, sometimes with a word, sometimes a gradual process, sometimes at a distance. Healing is divine whether it happens in a moment or over time, because the Creator who designed your body also established its processes of restoration. Every step toward wholeness, whether in the body or the mind or the emotions, is His work. Even now, when you cannot feel it, He can be healing the invisible wounds, tending what is bruised, restoring what has been broken. Do not dismiss what He is doing simply because it follows a slower, quieter course than you expected. Keep looking to Him, not to a pattern.

The enemy would love to keep you in fear, but God’s thoughts toward you are for peace, not for evil. He has promised a future and a hope. In the middle of your captivity to worry or pain, He has not forgotten you. Call upon Him, and He will hearken. Pour out your heart for your family, seek His peace for them, and remember that when you walk in fellowship with Him, you walk a path of rest. No matter how suddenly things may change around you, you can trust that He is still ordaining peace for those who are His. May your whole household know that peace which passes understanding, and may you experience His healing touch in whatever form He chooses to give it, until you are whole.