Psalm 103:1-5 – Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits — who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (NIV)

I'd like to introduce you to one of the girls who used to ride with me on my school bus. Whenever she would get the tiniest of scratches (or hurts), she would immediately cry out for a band-aid. On all the buses, there are first aid kits that are quite visible. She knows that there are band-aids there, and she believes that they will take away all the hurting.

I think that we are often like this young girl. When something happens in life that hurts, sometimes we try to hide it with the band-aid fix. If we put something over it, and we don't see it, or others can't see it, then maybe it will just go away. Unfortunately, though, sometimes when we do that, the hurt just gets worse; it gets infected. We can't just cover up our hurts in the hope that they will get better. Hurts need to be cleaned and treated.

Then there are others who continually pick at their wounds. They don't allow their wounds time to heal. We need to learn to pay attention when we're hurting, but we also need to give ourselves the time to heal.

The Psalmist reminds us today that it is God who heals us. We need to share with God how we are hurting. That's like allowing someone to clean up the wound, and then put the band-aid on so that it won't get infected. Then we need to leave it alone for awhile. We need to trust God, and let God heal it in His time.

Are you hurting today? Do you need God's healing touch in your life? Do you know someone who is hurting? Lift them up in prayer today.

Prayer: Loving God, thank You for Your healing. Help us to trust that You will bring healing in our lives. Amen.

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About the author:

Ruth McCowan <rbmccowan@shaw.ca>
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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