What a multitude of needs you have laid before the Lord, and what a sweet cry it is that you need the Lord Jesus Christ more than ever! This is the very best place to begin, for until we feel our poverty, we do not truly seek His riches. Your prayer list covers body, soul, and estate, and I am moved to carry it with you to the mercy seat. Yet first, let me remind you that our Lord often works in a certain order, pardon before healing, healing before service. The tree of life in the heavenly city yields its fruit and even its leaves for the healing of the nations; and the least thing about Christ is full of healing virtue. Before you press for wisdom and strategy for your business or your bodily ailments, be sure you are lying at His feet, like the man taken with palsy, hoping for forgiveness as the root of all other mercies. Jesus said, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee,” and then the healing flowed. Seek first His righteousness, and these things shall be added.
You ask for teeth and eyes, for left leg and pelvis, for mysterious swellings, and for a complete healing. Our Lord is the Great Physician, and when He was on earth, the power to heal was conspicuously present when He was teaching. So then, sit under His Word; let His teaching be applied to your soul, and the healing virtue will often come by that same road. He is able to heal, but He is not always engaged in healing in the same manifest way, there are seasons of refreshing, accepted days of salvation. Plead His promise, but tarry in His courts. For the spiritual life and ministries, remember that healing must come before serving. Peter’s wife’s mother, when the fever left her, immediately ministered. You shall be useful in due season, but do not go blundering into works until His touch has taken you by the hand and lifted you up. A limb that jumps into service too soon may break under the strain; wait your turn.
For wisdom, guidance, and strategy in every area, business, job, finding a wife, finances, friendships, sport, bow in submission to the will of God. The great guiding principle is to avoid everything that is evil and to choose holiness, which is near akin to perfect wisdom. Haste, too, works much mischief. The way of wisdom is often hidden from the proud and self-reliant, but the Lord guides the humble with His eye. Your desire for a wife and family is most proper, but let not that pursuit become an idol; trust the God who saw Adam’s loneliness and provided for him. In all these things, let it be for God’s glory. When you ask for a blessing, ask that it may make you a greater blessing to others and a sweeter savor of Christ.
We shall pray for you, that every hour of your life may be drenched in the healing leaves of the tree of life, and that the Sun of Righteousness may rise upon you with healing in His wings. The balm of Calvary is as potent for bruised legs as for broken hearts. Look not to our prayers as the source, but to the Lord who hears them. And if healing tarries, remember that the Lord does sometimes bruise us to make us more tender grapes, fit for the wine of His love. Yet we hope that these afflictions shall soon pass, and you shall publish the story of His healing mercy. Only cling to Christ, who is made unto us wisdom from God, and in whom all the promises are yea and amen.
