Your cry has pierced the heavens, and the Lord, who is rich in mercy, has heard every syllable of your earnest supplication. But let me take your hand and turn your eyes from the mirror to the cross, for while you fix your gaze upon the marred skin of your face, there is a deeper leprosy that only the blood of Jesus can cleanse. The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations, and the very least thing about Christ carries a virtue that can restore the soul, making all things new. Are you as desperate for the removal of sin’s foul spots as for these bodily marks? For the one is but a shadow that must soon pass away, while the other defiles the inner man for eternity if left unhealed.
The great Physician came not so much to point out disease as to apply the remedy. At Calvary, healing and pardon are placed in happy conjunction: when Jesus said to the palsied man, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee,” health surged through his limbs. Seek first the forgiveness that makes the spirit without spot or wrinkle, and trust the body to Him who shall fashion it anew in the resurrection, fresher than a newborn babe’s. Even if the scars remain for a season, as Peter carried in his memory the bitter marks of his fall, they may become a sweet reminder of the grace that plucked you from the pit. The Lord can, if He wills, speak the word and smooth every blemish as the leper’s flesh came again like a little child’s; but if He chooses rather to give you a thorn in the flesh, His grace shall be sufficient, and His strength made perfect in your weakness.
Do not imagine that the gospel’s healing power is absent because the answer tarries. It is when Christ is teaching that the power is most present; faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Immerse yourself in the promises, and let the Sun of Righteousness rise upon you with healing in His wings. But if you would have a miracle for your face, oh, beg a far greater one for your heart: that it might be broken in true repentance, and bound up again by the hand that heals the broken-hearted. There is an abundance of healing balm in Jesus; the very leaves of the tree, those gentle words of comfort, are full of virtue. Yet the Master’s chief work is not to answer every plea according to our narrow wisdom, but to prepare a people who have His marks upon them, not of mere outward beauty, but of love and holiness.
Wrestle in prayer like Jacob, crying, “Lord, I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.” But let your clinging be to the Giver, not merely to the gift. Should He restore your skin as perfectly as you desire, it would bring only a fleeting comfort if the soul remained unwashed. I charge you, then, to examine whether you have felt the look of Jesus that severs you from the crowd and melts the heart into obedient love. That is the restoration most to be prized.
Perhaps you ask, “But does not the Scripture say, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive’?” Indeed it does, and I would not dampen the flame of your faith. Yet remember that the promise rests upon asking in His name, that is, in union with His will, for His glory. There is no restraint with the Lord to heal by many or by few; He may touch you this very hour and make your skin as the flesh of a young child, if it pleases Him. But if He grants it not, trust that He is perfecting something in your soul through these outward afflictions. The day is coming when every child of God shall be presented faultless before His presence with exceeding joy; then no trace of disease, no furrow of sorrow, no scar of sin shall remain. Until that blessed morning, let His will be your health, and His love your comfort. Cast yourself wholly upon Jesus, for neither is there salvation in any other, nor healing for the whole man but in Him alone. He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever: He can heal, He will heal, but He must heal you aright, first the soul, and then the body, in His own time and way. Amen.