Healing Vs. Curing
One of the things Arie Kim-El Arabi talked about in the sermon yesterday was the difference between healing and curing. So much of modern medicine focuses on curing - on fixing a problem. So much of Jesus’s ministry focused on healing - on restoring humanity to people. Think of how many times he called people ‘daughter’ or ‘son’ and how many times he blessed people for their faith.
Are there places in your life that you’re demanding curing from God when perhaps God might just want to bring healing? I (Bill) spoke with a leader after church who is going through a divorce and trying to recover from their addiction and they said this:
I feel like these are A LOT of things I'd like to see fixed in my life. But the message I heard today of Cured vs Healed was so helpful. Our desire to be "fixed" deprives us the beauty of being alive today.
Where has your desired to be cured/fixed interrupted God’s plan to bring connection, restoration, and healing?
As you read through this passage, be asking yourself what is standing out about the difference between being cured and being healed.
David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?”
“At your service,” he replied. 3 The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?” Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.” 4 “Where is he?” the king asked.
Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”
5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.
6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.
David said, “Mephibosheth!” “At your service,” he replied.
7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” 8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”
9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
11 Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth. 13 And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet. - - 2 Samuel 9: 1-13