God Heals Because He’s Compassionate

• God has compassion for His children regarding illness, physical wounds, and the internal wounds of our hearts.

• Psalm 34:18 (NLT) says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.”

• Likewise, Psalm 147:3 (NLT) says: “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.”

• In Psalm 30:2 (NLT), King David declares, “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you restored my health.”

• Some of the clearest - and most notable - examples of God’s compassion for healing are shown through Jesus’ time here on earth. 

• There are numerous instances of Jesus healing people in the Gospels (i.e., the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). And His healing wasn’t limited to certain types.

• Matthew 4:23 (NLT) says: “Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness.”

• Jesus healed a variety of other ailments including leprosy (which was much more common back then), demon possession (which is what Mary Magdalene suffered from), blindness, and states of being crippled. Just to name a few.

• A few examples of Jesus physically healing women in particular:

• Firstly, in Mark 5:25-34, we read about a woman who had been suffering constant bleeding for 12 years. 

• None of the doctors she had gone to were able to help her. In fact, the story says that they actually made it worse. 

• However, she believed that, just by touching Jesus’ robe, she would be healed. And she was! In verse 34 Jesus says: “And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

• And it wasn’t just her physical suffering that was over. Jewish law at the time considered a menstruating woman unclean. So she had also been an outcast from society for 12 years. 

• In Luke 4:38-39, Jesus heals the mother-in-law of one of His disciples - Simon (later called Peter). She had been suffering from a fever and its related illness that had been keeping her in bed.

• In Luke 13:10-17, Jesus heals a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit for 18 years. She hadn’t been able to stand-up straight.  

• Jesus also cares about healing women’s hearts and other things related to our inner struggles:

• In John 4:1-42, we read about the Samaritan Woman at the well. 

• Jews and Samaritans were not on friendly terms. In fact, they went out of their way to avoid each other. 

• But Jesus specifically went to the well - during the hottest part of the day when He knew she would be there.

• She was there to avoid the other women due to the shame from society due to her situation. She was currently living with a man who wasn’t her husband and, before that, she had been married five times.

• Jesus changed her life by revealing to her that He was the Messiah. (By the way, she - a woman! - was the first person Jesus revealed this to!)

• Not only did this change her life. It changed the lives of those living in her community because she immediately shared her Jesus experience with her village. And the villagers believed her, so much so that Jesus ended up staying there for two days, causing others to believe.

• Also, in John 8:1-11, we read about the woman caught in adultery. 

• The Pharisees wanted to stone her. But Jesus prevented this by pointing to the fact that no one is without sin. 

• Then, instead of shaming or humiliating the woman, He instilled her with a renewed purpose and a sense of hope - in addition to freeing her from the ramifications (physical, mental, emotional, community-wise) if she had been stoned.

• In verses 9-11 (NIV), it says: At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” … “No one, sir,” she said. … “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”