The Lord Who Heals: Finding Hope In Our Darkest Hours

By Jessica Brodie

I don’t speak Hebrew, but I’m always fascinated by other languages. I love hearing new words that might be able to describe precious concepts and critical truths that mere English can’t seem to capture. One of the Hebrew names for God happens to be my very favorite—Jehovah-Rapha, meaning “the Lord who heals.”

I love that name because God does heal us! I’m not talking about the physical body, though sometimes he does that, too. And physical healing was certainly a key part of Jesus’s earthly ministry. But God heals us in a much more important way than this. He heals the soul. He binds up the wounds of the brokenhearted and places true joy in our hearts (Psalm 147:3). He takes the anguish and suffering experienced on this earth—the afflictions, the loss of people we love, the devastation, and the pain—and he speaks life into those dry bones.

The most important way he does this is through his son, Jesus Christ.

God perfectly and completely heals through Jesus Christ, and not only in the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross with the eternal life we receive when we believe in him and have faith. He also heals through people who come alongside us, through the caring of friends and even strangers. He heals through the little ways he whispers to us in what can be our darkest hours.

I remember distinctly how God healed me as I knelt sobbing on my bathroom floor when my world seemed like it was coming apart at the seams.

He was also there over and over again through the life of one woman, Jody Seehorn Turner, whose book has just released. Jody’s book is called Beauty from Ashes, and it’s her testimony about how God truly can transform our deepest pain into something meaningful and beautiful.

Jody led an interesting life. A nurse with no desire to ever leave this country, somehow she found herself on the mission field in Zambia in her twenties. On her return home, planning to become a nurse practitioner and head back to Zambia, her plans shifted when she fell in love with a handsome and charming doctor and realized God had a new purpose for her—as his wife.

Yet Jody knew pain through this new purpose, which is often the case for many of us. She walked beside her husband as he battled three separate bouts of addiction to amphetamines over decades. In three different instances, she found herself on her knees, crying out to the God who heals, Jehovah-Rapha—help me, Lord, help me through this pain.

He did.

God was there again for Jody when she and her husband battled crippling financial catastrophe. He was there when their oldest son took his life.

God is there today. Again and again.

Today, Jody is a survivor—not in her own strength, but because of the One who walked with her the whole way: God. Today her husband has gained 25 years of sobriety. They’re not wealthy, but God has provided more than enough. While they will always grieve their oldest son, they take comfort in the precious daughter he left behind and their other grandchildren.

Jody’s story is not unique by any means if you think about it. The truth is that God walks beside us every day. He’s there in our joy and our pain.

If only we will let him.

If you’re going through a time of despair and suffering and you think no one cares, or you think you’re in this completely alone, please know God is with you. You’re never alone.

Perhaps you might enjoy Jody’s book, and I pray that her words in her testimony will inspire you to cling to the only true hope any of us really have—our savior, Jesus Christ.

Click here to buy Jody’s book Beauty from Ashes on Amazon.

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Are you a reader? I write Christian contemporary fiction that addresses the authentic, real-life faith issues many of us struggle with—forgiveness, mental health, and how to embrace new life in Christ after years of sin and wandering. (They’re also both Amazon bestsellers!) I hope you’ll check them out. Available in paperback, ebook, or audiobook. Click here.