Why Healing Requires More Than Self Help
You May Also Like: 3 Steps To Accessing The Power At Work Within You
Invite Healing
Are we inclined to be somewhat like Naaman? I know that I have been at times, and I have observed others who reject what is available for that which is not. It is commonly said that “God works through means,” and those means are regularly at odds with our preferences, both in terms of timing and the actual form which those means take. Further, we may be given only glimpses, in this life, of the intended and final ends of those means.
James tells us plainly to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Similarly, Paul gave Timothy rather mundane advice for managing what appears to have been a chronic condition. The crucial element here is to view healing as provided ultimately by God, with the terms and timing of his choosing. It may come through the counsel of friends and the care of physicians, but not without the action of God. King Asa, a relatively good king, we are told, refused to seek help from God, but only from physicians, and that appears to have been as ineffective as it was unfaithful.
John Owen warned of the danger of seeking (and obtaining) healing from the burden of sin through any means other than those appointed by God. He says that we can, after a fashion, find a kind of peace, but not one of God’s making, but of our own construction. He says, “self-healers—that is, those who speak peace to themselves—are usually impatient; they will not wait; they do not attend to what God says, yet they expect to be healed.” He means, I believe, that in haste to find relief from the appropriate sense of guilt which sin brings, we are in danger of finding relief from the sense of sin without being delivered from the sin itself. He continues, “Don’t imagine that this sort of peace comes from God. It will be well with us when we are fully attentive to all God’s commandments. God will justify us from our sins, but he will not justify even the smallest sin in us.”
So, self-help is, from a theological perspective, a bit of an oxymoron. It is our very self that needs healing, and it is the disease of our souls (our selves) that renders us unfit to provide that help to ourselves apart from outside intervention. Ironically, we are often guided to receive help from those we must acknowledge to be as flawed as we know ourselves to be. Yet, that is somehow part of God’s usual provision. Can he work without human intermediaries? Of course. Does he? Of course. Can he make a donkey speak? Of course. Is that his usual manner? Not in my experience. Rather, I find that he works through our obedience to his commands of exhortation and encouragement which point us to the bearing of one another’s burdens, visiting the sick, and offering and receiving prayers. These are some of the means God has ordained to the ends we seek, and we cannot neglect or despise those means if we expect to obtain those ends.