What Does it Feel Like to be Healed?

I have prayed for healing.

I have prayed for symptoms to disappear because that is what healing meant to me, but deep within I have suspected that my prayers were somehow too narrow. Too limited. How, then, should I pray? Is true healing more than the absence of some symptom?

I prayed that my boy would be healed. I prayed that food would no longer squeeze the breath from his lungs. God heard my prayer. When his throat began to swell, and I had forgotten the epi-pen, a stranger’s hand reached out with the medicine he needed.

What does it feel like to be healed? It feels like being held.

I have felt the breath squeezed from my own lungs. For one long, hard month I have despaired of ever again feeling strong. And I have prayed for healing.

I prayed for breath when what I needed was hope.

This is not a less-than prayer. I do not redefine healing in order to make it seem more possible. Lungs are made strong, allergies do disappear, the cords of cancer and disease are broken every day, but God can do so much more than that.

His healing is not limited to our bodies. His healing is not given only to those whom doctors will pronounce well. 

To be healed by God is to know that death is a lie. That there is nothing to fear.

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.” Psalm 18:16

To be held in arms of love. That is what it feels like to be healed.