God Our Healer : Chaerin Kim
Isaiah 53:5 (ESV)
5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Most people today consider illness and death as a normal part of life; however, this was never God’s original intention. When the world was first created, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” It was only when sin entered the world that illness and death followed along.
At birth, I underwent heart surgery and stayed in the ICU for a month. I was born with a congenital heart condition which required me to go to the cardiologist annually for the first couple of years in my early life. During my childhood, I recall the doctors performing a variety of tests on me to make sure that my heart was beating at a normal rate. I had an irregular heartbeat that made me lose breath a little bit faster than the average person. Oftentimes in school, I would have to sit out during gym class because I was told not to participate in any intense physical activity. I even had to go as far as wearing a heart monitor to school to audit my heart rate, which became a normal activity for me. When I got into middle school, my heart condition started to worsen and the doctor recommended that I undergo another surgery.
During this time, my mom was being radically changed through Christ as she accepted Him as her Lord and Savior. I recall her fervently praying for me every day, crying out to God for my healing. It was also during this time that I was given this Bible verse and told to recite it with faith that He would heal me; so I did. I memorized it and repeated it to myself every single day as an 11-year old child, sincerely believing that God would heal me. Despite my efforts, each visit to the cardiologist over the year showed progressively worse results. My family began to mentally prepare for me to get the surgery and I began to lose hope.
I attended a revival the following year where there was an altar call for healing. As I prayed, I recited this Bible verse repeatedly, proclaiming it over myself and desperately asking for healing. It states that Jesus Christ would endure death on the cross on our behalf and “by His wounds we are healed”-- not in the past or in the future, but in the present. It was at that moment that I realized I did not need to beg for physical healing, but what I truly needed was to give thanks and worship the LORD for the healing that He was already doing. The profound transformation of my mother, the dependence on the Lord in my hopelessness, the vital endurance that was built as I struggled to move forward; these were but a few healings that I experienced during this journey. As I gave praise to God, I felt an indescribable amount of hope and peace. God was listening and actively moving during the times that I had thought He was being silent. The very same week, my cardiologist shared the shocking news that my heart was in good condition and I no longer needed to get the surgery.
When Jesus came to the Earth, He healed the sick and the lame, casted out demons, and fed the multitude. All this was a demonstration of what God had intended for His original creation. God is not just the Healer of man in the Bible, but He is also the Healer of man to this day. He who healed the blind, deaf, and diseased in the past is the same yesterday, today, and forever. While I experienced a supernatural miracle of physical healing in my life, I believe that ultimately, God wanted to heal every aspect of my being first. I prayed for healing as an act of trust and dependence on Him. Although God is able to heal any physical ailment we have, sometimes He allows us to endure certain conditions because they lead us to rely more fully on Him. For me, it was when I surrendered my flesh and acknowledged the power of His Word that God was able to bring true healing to my spiritual and physical body. In the same way, let us boldly declare that God is listening to our prayers and praise Him for the healing that He will bring upon us-- for He is God our Healer. Amen.