One of the most powerful words in the Bible that speaks to our relationship with God is healing.  I had a professor in seminary that used to always say that the Greek word for salvation within the scripture could also be understood as healing or wholeness.

Sin makes us “sick.”  Both our sins, the things that we have done wrong, as well as the greater fallen nature of the world that we live in.  We have, what one of the old hymns speaks of, sin-sick souls.  Grace is the balm upon that wound. Grace is what heals our sickness.  Grace is what restores that which sin has taken.  Listen to what God says today through Hosea in Hosea 14: 1-5:

1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2Take words with you and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all guilt; accept that which is good, and we will offer the fruit of our lips. 3Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” 4 I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.

He is speaking to the people of God in the midst of judgement.  He is speaking to them when sin is having its great effect upon the people.  What does the LORD say?  He tells them that He will heal their disloyalty.  He will heal their sin.  He will heal what is wrong.

Their healing will not come from their own strength.  It will not come from their own power.  It will not come from Assyria or any other earthly power.  It will come from His grace and His grace alone.  That’s where healing comes from.

Today, are you tired?  Are weary?  Are you looking for peace in so many different ways, but each of them turns up empty?

You will never find peace there.  You will never find healing there.  You will never find hope there.  You will only find it in the grace and healing of our Savior.

Today, you can know that healing through Jesus.  Your soul can be at rest in this moment.  Through Jesus.

Remember where that healing, that hope, that salvation comes from.  It comes from the grace of our Lord.  Never forget that.

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