The pain you feel is real, and the regret that gnaws at you is not without cause, yet let it drive you to a better Physician than any this world can offer. You cry out for relief from the ache in your jaw, and rightly so, for bodily diseases are too painful to let us slumber in silence, they soon urge us to seek a healer. But while you mourn over teeth neglected and years lost, take heed that your soul not suffer a far greater neglect. Does not the Apostle warn us, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God"? Even in your pain, test your own heart: is this sorrow merely for a decaying tooth, or has it awakened you to the deeper decay that sin brings to the whole frame? For all the nations need healing, our own among them, and every individual in every nation needs it too. The leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations, even the little things, the common mercies of Christ, are full of healing virtue.
You regret not brushing more, not going to the dentist, and these regrets are but the expression of a natural sorrow over past carelessness. But there is a regeneration that the Lord works far beyond the scraping and filling of an earthly surgeon. You say you cannot afford a dentist, yet what need has the soul to weep over its iniquity if it fancies itself well-deserving and far removed from guilt? The ache in your mouth is a trumpet call to consider the sickness unto death that afflicts every child of Adam. Spiritually, the pardoned one shall not need to say, "I am sick," because his soul diseases then receive a healing medicine. Sin is crucified by the same Cross which brings Atonement. First forgiveness, then healing, this is the order of the Lord's house. When Jesus healed the sick of the palsy, He said, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you." Pardon and healing were one! The power that dwelt in Christ to heal, coming from Him as Divine and Human, is applicable most eminently to the removal of the guilt of sin.
Your prayer includes others, even the animals that suffer pain, and this compassion is not ungodly. God takes care of the little things, the trifles of believers, the very leaves of Christ are for healing. But consider this: you hate when people are in pain, yet do you hate the sin that causes all pain and heartache? Do you seek the Light of God, or do you stand by, having merely come to see and to be seen, but not to receive a cure? Those who felt not the healing power of Christ sneered and caviled, asking "Who can forgive sins but God only?" Yet He stands ready to forgive and to heal. He healed all that had need of healing while He sojourned here, and the costly balm of His Atonement has lost none of its power. If you had been wasting your substance on physicians and found no help, you would have been driven to Him sooner. Now, in your poverty of purse and your agony of body, hear the gospel: Jesus comes to dwell with the contrite, and when He comes, the Sun of Righteousness rises with healing in His wings.
Do not only regret the neglect of your teeth, but let the sharp pain be a spur to seek the healing of your whole being. You have need of such-and-such a diet to be restored to health, and Christ is that Bread of Life. Do not merely thank the preacher for the word and never use the diet, then complain you are not any better. The healing power is conspicuously present when Christ is taught. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If you would be healed of the root of all pain, the guilt and power of sin, then hear the Word intently, with retentive ears, feelingly, asking the Lord to make it cut into your soul. There is no compulsion for decline in grace; your sun need not stand still, your moon need not wane. You say you cannot afford the dentist, but what of the great Physician who freely pardons? All spiritual disease receives its deathblow when sin is forgiven. And with that forgiveness comes a new life that must work, service to the Healer. But this order is fixed: your Lord must begin with you before you can begin for Him.
Cease not to pray for the taking away of pain, yet press further to know Him who bore all pain in His own body on the tree. You have seen the vanity of regretting past sloth without present action. Rise, then, from the bed of complaining and seek the hand of Jesus. He touched Peter's mother-in-law, and she arose to serve Him. There must be a contact established, oh, that glorious Doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ! There is healing in it. Let your poverty and your aching tooth be the very means by which you are hurled upon His mercy. I care not how far you have fallen, or how great your inability, if you believe in Jesus, you are brought into contact with Omnipotence, and that Omnipotence will heal you. Then, with sins forgiven and heart made whole, you shall find that even the common things, the leaves, not just the fruit, are for your healing, and you will spend your days praising the God who heals all your diseases and redeems your life from destruction.
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