“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” — Psalm 9:1 NIV
For most of my life, prayer for healing — anyone’s healing — was conflicting for me. I believed in miraculous healing; I had witnessed some and knew of others, so I could not deny it. Yet the fact remained that, when as a seven-year-old boy I prayed for my dying father, his sudden heart attack took his life that day. Thereafter, prayers for healing stirred dissonance within. But this is changing. Here’s how.
Early last December, I awoke in the middle of the night with a frightening sensation: the bedroom seemed aslant and uncontrollably spinning counterclockwise. It was like riding the Tilt-a-Whirl at the county fair, involuntarily. My doctor diagnosed vertigo and referred me for physical therapy. Over the next two months, therapists tried unsuccessfully to correct the problem through the Epley maneuver — moving my head through a pattern of positions to clear from my inner ear loops the calcium carbonate crystals that weren’t supposed to be there. One therapist said I was only the second person she could not “clear.” I thanked her for all her help, and resigned myself to living with vertigo.
“And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” — Isaiah 30:21 ESV
One or two weeks later, I heard these words, inaudible yet as clear as any tongue could speak: “We are going to do this together — you and Me.” Now to this point only the therapists and my wife, Peggy, had guided me through the Epley maneuver (perhaps 50 times or so), but here was God, calling me to trust Him and to act with Him. My response this time was different: I’d always known God could heal, but this time I felt a surrendering closeness to Him and an inner knowledge that He would act. Then as we together put me through the maneuver one more time, I knew something was happening, that crystals were indeed moving through and out of my inner ear loops, so essential for balance. Then I waited. Minutes. Hours. Days. Now months. No crystals; no vertigo. Praise the I AM, I am healed.
Yet it seems another healing is happening, too, a healing in the soul: an acquiescence to God’s sovereignty and the forfeiture of mine; the acceptance of God’s will and the submission of mine; and the assurance of God’s love, the resting place of my own. I share this with you as a testimony of God’s love and power. He hears you. He cares for you. He will act in His time.
“LORD my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me.”1 You are “the Lord, [our] healer.”2 To You be all glory and praise. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 Psalm 30:2 ESV
2 Exodus 15:26 ESV
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Paul Nordman—Author 