You ask for a wise and understanding heart, and for healing of teeth, eyes, leg, pelvis, stomach and all your inward parts. Good. But consider this: the dullness of hearing that comes from long affliction can make the soul cling to childish things. The law once allowed an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, not to unleash revenge but to restrain the violent, to bind the hands of the aggressor so that both might be preserved. Yet you, in your pain, must not be like a child who smites his own knee or overturns a footstool to relieve his rage. Do you desire healing? Then first seek the wisdom from above, which is far mightier than all human understanding. The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and He made Christ to be our wisdom.
The Word of God is not a charm for the body only, but a sword for the soul. You pray that Proverbs be fulfilled in your life: walk with the wise and become wise. But who are the wise? Not those who merely recite Scripture, but those who pour out their whole soul before God, counting all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Do not become dull through continual pains, but let your affliction teach you to despise what the world counts gain. The woman at the well left her waterpot and ran: she paraded her life openly, so that others might come and see the Christ. So you, if you would be a good steward, must first lose everything, counting even your bodily comforts as dung, that you may gain Christ.
Many beg for healing, but few cry out for righteousness. Do not fashion excuses: some say, “All beggars are impostors,” and so they harden their hearts; others seek after signs and bodily relief as though the stomach were the seat of salvation. I do not deny your pains, but I charge you: examine yourself. Why does the soul practice itself in evil by remembering injuries while asking healing of God? Before you petition for the left leg or the wisdom tooth, cleanse your heart of all bitterness and envy and strife, for these make men carnal. Let the inward parts be healed first, the stomach of the soul sick with worldly cares, the eyes blinded by vanity. Then cry out with the prophet: not “heal my tooth,” but “Lord, that I might see!” That is the wisdom hidden in mystery, which God ordained before the ages for our glory.
Pray, then, but pray not with a childish mind clamoring for quick relief. Seek Him with all your heart, and the Word will work in you mightily. The true healing comes when you are found in Christ, not having a righteousness of your own from the law, but that which is through faith. If He grants wholeness to your body, receive it with thanksgiving; if He delays, count it trustily as gain. For His strength is made perfect in weakness, and the wisdom of this world, which frets over teeth and bowels and subcutaneous balls, comes to naught. So stand fast: walk with the wise ones who feared God, not those who whisper endless cures, and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.