Healing is a Partnership

(Adapted from Jimmy’s newest book, When Life Hurts)

Karen and I began our marriage with a host of sins, hang-ups, and personal wounds. From the start, our relationship was rocky. Our struggles took us to the brink of divorce until God stepped in and healed our marriage.

Much of that healing occurred when the two of us, as individuals, turned away from harmful behaviors and began to bring good things into our marriage. But we truly believe the overall result was supernatural: God healed our broken spirits.

However, divine healing isn’t always permanent. It can be lost. A friend of mine has a national healing ministry and often we’ve spoken about the tremendous number of people who find miraculous healing at his meetings.

One day at lunch, he told me that more than half the people he sees getting healed eventually lose their healing. I asked why, and will never forget his response. “Because they immediately go back to the same way they had been living,” he said.

Divine healing is available to us, but if we expect God’s healing to last, we have to be willing to change those lifestyle habits that put us in bondage to pain.

When God healed our marriage, Karen and I knew that we had to change the way we had been treating each other.

The dysfunction in our marriage was caused by our damaging and sinful behavior. My emotional bullying had wounded Karen. God healed those wounds, but I also had to completely change the way I spoke to her and treated her. Otherwise, every area God had healed would revert to the way it had been.

Healing is a process. I had to learn new patterns of behavior. So did Karen. We each had to do our part, walking with God and changing our lifestyle.

By the time our marriage’s healing was complete, Karen and I had become different people—with new habits, new customs, new behavioral patterns and an entirely different vocabulary toward each other.

Often I hear people pray, “God, please heal our finances” when what they’re really asking is, “God, please give us more money.” They want God to snap His fingers and change their lives.

God is willing to bless His people financially, but the primary reason people don’t have money is that they don’t know how to manage it properly.

He’s not going to drop a bucket of money on your lap if He knows you’ll misuse it. What He will do is come alongside you as you work with Him to heal your financial problems.

This applies to God’s works of healing across the board. He will heal your marriage, but that healing comes with the expectation that you’ll change—your lifestyle, the way you speak to one another, the things you expect from one another, the way you communicate with each other.

Healing is a partnership between you and God. It isn’t a one-time event. It’s a process that requires a long-term commitment to change.

Do you want Him to heal your marriage? He can and will. Are you ready for it?