Dr. Ray Pritchard Christian Blog and Commentary

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The Promise of Healing

  • Dr. Ray Pritchard
    Dr. Ray Pritchard is the president of Keep Believing Ministries, an Internet-based ministry serving Christians in 225 countries. He is the author of 29 books, including Stealth Attack, Fire and Rain,… More
  • Published Nov 29, 2018

“The Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2).

The Old Testament ends with this beautiful picture of our Lord.
When he comes, he will “rise” as the sun rises in the sky.
When he comes, he will banish the darkness.
When he comes, his light will fill the world.

But his coming does more than bring light into the darkness. When he comes, he brings the light of God’s righteousness with him. Here is good news for those who feel the heavy weight of their own failures. In one of her books, Ruth Graham writes of a day when she felt overwhelmed by a sense of her own sinfulness:

“I am a weak, lazy, indifferent character; casual when I should be concerned, concerned when I should be carefree; self-indulgent, hypocritical, begging God to help me when I am hardly willing to lift a finger for myself; quarrelsome where I should be silent, silent where I should be outspoken; vacillating, easily distracted and sidetracked.”

Who among us could not say the same thing, multiplied many times over? Then she adds these words:

"What would I do," wrote Chalmers, "if God did not justify the ungodly?" And "What would I do," said Thomas Boston of Scotland, "but for the imputed righteousness?" There it is. All that I am not, He is; all that I am and should not be, He forgives and covers (from It’s My Turn, pp. 104-105).

At Bethlehem a baby arrived from heaven “with healing in his wings.” John Piper applies the truth this way:

Though Jesus does not heal every disease in this life, he will heal every disease in the resurrection. In other words Jesus meets the tremendous need we all feel for hope beyond the grave—that all sickness and pain and sorrow and crying will be gone forever (From “The Sun of Righteousness Will Rise”).

Here is the good news of Christmas: Jesus came to save sinners. Are you a sinner? He came for you! Is your heart heavy today? Run to Jesus because he is all you need for everything you will face today. He heals the brokenhearted, and he sets the captive free.

Lord Jesus, we come to you just as we are. We come broken and ask you to heal us. We come guilty and ask you to forgive us. We do not come because we are worthy, but because you are the Sun of Righteousness. Heal us and help us and make us whole again. Amen.

Musical bonus: Meredith Andrews took the familiar carol God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and gave it a contemporary twist. Listen to her new version called He Has Come for Us.

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