“God Restores Banged Up People”

One family had a son who was in the Gulf War. They had not heard from him in ten months and were very concerned. Time went on, and finally, their son called home. The mother was excited. She said, “Come on home, son.”

He said, “I will, but first I have a request. I have a buddy from the war that has been banged up pretty bad. He has only one arm, one leg, and one eye. I would like him to come and stay with us.” The mother said, “Great, son, let him come for a week, and let’s see how it goes.”

He said, “No, mother, you don’t understand. This friend is really banged up. He is going to need a lot of help. I am asking you if he can come and live with us permanently.” At this point, the mother objected. She said, “Son, you don’t know how difficult this is going to be. That is going to be a serious time commitment and a real drag on everyone. Son, this is too much for us. But please come home.”

At that point, the telephone clicked dead. The next day, the Army personnel came to see the mother. They said their son had committed suicide the night before and that they needed to go to the morgue and identify the body. So, the parents went to the morgue. When they saw the body, they confirmed that it was their son with one arm, one leg, and one eye.

We live in a world where people are banged up physically and spiritually. Thankfully, the hope for all banged up people is that there is a God who specializes in accepting and restoring them. Through the biblical text, we are inspired and motivated by God’s Word of the possibility of physical and spiritual healing.

However, physical healing is something that has been misunderstood by many of God’s children. Sometimes, believers read scriptures that speak of healing and assume it’s physical healing that the writer is referring to when in reality, it’s spiritual healing. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast” (Jer. 30:17, ESV). When God’s people would not listen to His prophet’s warning of impending destruction due to their continuous disobedience (Jer. 13:1-27), God allowed another nation to wound them, resulting in their being “banged up” in Babylonian captivity. (Jer. 25:1-11). Even though His people were banged up for 70 years, God provided a word of hope by promising to restore their spiritual health and vitality (Jer. 30:17).

Another passage that is often misinterpreted as it relates to physical healing is Isaiah 53:5, where Isaiah said, “But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds, we are healed.” One of the ways that we know Isaiah is proclaiming spiritual healing is because we’ve read where Peter said, “He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet. 2:24). Peter offers the reason for Jesus’ suffering and death. His suffering and death provided the spiritual healing we needed from the consequence of sin.

Please understand that I am not saying that God does not heal physically. In Psalm 30:2, David wrote, “O Lord, my God, I cried to you for help, and you healed me.” David needed physical healing because he was at the point of death, and God intervened and restored his health (Ps. 30:3). In Psalm 103:3, David declared that the Lord is the One “who forgives all [our] iniquities, [and He is the One] who heals all [our] diseases.” On several occasions, Jesus healed people of their physical infirmities (Matt. 17:18; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 18:35-43; John 4:46-54). I would also add James’ instructions to believers when he wrote, “And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:15-16).

The scriptures absolutely speak of physical healing. However, the problem is that some believers think that if they hold fast to the scriptures relating to healing and pray those scriptures back to God, that somehow God is obligated to honor their request for physical healing. Previously, I referenced Psalm 30:2 and how God healed David when he was sick. But the same David had a son that got sick (2 Sam. 12:15), and when David prayed for his son to be healed, the Lord did not honor David’s request and the child died (2 Sam. 12:18). David was correct when he declared that the Lord is the One “who heals all [our] diseases” (Ps. 103:3). However, when David wrote those words, he was not offering a promise of physical healing. Instead, David communicated the divine truth that if anyone is healed and restored from physical sickness, God is the One who healed and restored them.

Sometimes when we desire physical healing, God can deny it and still provide restoration through His grace. When Paul desired physical healing from his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:8), the Lord restored him by giving Him something better than what he requested, He gave him His sufficient grace (2 Cor. 12:9-10). In 2015, I went through a season of sickness. I prayed for physical healing several times. God did not respond the way I wanted Him to respond. However, the way He responded was the best way! He gave me His sufficient grace. I can truly say that God did not give me what I wanted; He gave me what I needed. By relying on HIS grace, my confidence was restored. In the midst of my illness, I did not feel like leaving home or, at times, even living. Initially, my sickness left me depressed and dejected about life. Today, I can testify through the words of the psalmist when he wrote, “he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Ps. 147:3).

When we are banged up through unexpected or difficult circumstances, in His own way, God ministers to our hurts and ensures that we can face the challenges of a new day. No matter how banged up we may be, God balances our seasons of suffering with restoration, support, strength, and stability (1 Pet. 5:10). If you are banged up, know that God will restore you in His own way. Remember to do your part by trusting God (Prov. 3:5) to fulfill His promise of restoration. After you pray, leave it in God’s hands to work out your restoration according to His divine will and plan for your life.