My Great Physician

I awake.

Noticing, scanning my body’s cries.

Symptoms flaring.

Lord, I’m giving You my long list of ailments.

My Great Physician.

But my thoughts quickly creep into self-treating. Self-diagnosing. Self-problem-solving. Google frantic-antics.

Did I do too much?

Did I eat something I shouldn’t have?

Did I cause this flare-up, somehow?

Your song fills my scurrying thoughts.

🎶 My great Physician heals the sick,

The lost He came to save.

🎶 I need no other argument, I need no other plea,

It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me.

My Great Physician, please heal my sickness

I am indeed…

🎶 weak and wounded, sick and sore.

My sickness, much invisible to others, even doctors.

But You see.

You know.

My omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Physician.

🎶 I will arise and go to Jesus.

He will embrace me in His arms.

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end” (Lam. 3:22 ESV).

🎶 Full of wisdom, love, and power.

Forgive me, Lord.

For my sin of: it is not enough that Jesus died for me.

Of thinking You are not enough, in begging others to notice.

In clinging to my plans for today.

In frantic self-ness.

In prayer-less expectation of something You’ve not promised.

For You are indeed full of all wisdom, love and power, dearest Savior.

Please help me. Mercifully, bring some relief from these symptoms today.

My Great Physician, You saved me. I am Yours, body, mind, soul

🎶 Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within!

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-7 ESV).

🎶 I once was lost, and now am found!

My Great Physician, is it enough?

To be…

🎶 cleansed within.

But with a body wracked with pain.

Inabilities.

Incurables.

In my flaring, be my enough

For I can’t problem-solve out of this.

I am not enough for this broken body.

Jesus, You are enough, Your body broken for me.

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:12 ESV)

Release me from problem-solving into Your hands, Great Physician.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases” (Ps. 103:2-3 ESV).

Heal my sin-sickness of discontent.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want (Ps. 23:1 ESV).

Of any clinging to an identity as a sick and suffering person.

My Great Physician, heal my sickness as I refuge in You, my “enough”

“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure” (Ps. 147:5 ESV).

Be my enough, Lord.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1 ESV).

Be my enough, Lord.

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,

for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,

till the storms of destruction pass by” (Ps. 57:1 ESV).

Be my enough, Lord.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,

who redeems your life from the pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy” (Ps. 103:2, 4 ESV).

As this flareup becomes a day of walking in Your Spirit, embraced in the refuging arms of Christ,

Heal my sickness, for You are indeed….

My enough, Christ Jesus.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-30 ESV).

My life.

My trust.

My Savior. My Lord.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake” (Ps. 23:2-3 ESV).

Rest me, lead me, restore me, quieted in today’s flare.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Ps. 23:6 ESV).

In Your shepherding name, my great Physician who heals the sick, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.

Did you know…

In chronic pain, chronic illness, chronic stress, and accompanying depression and anxiety, our body’s natural endorphins are depleted? It’s one pain-full cycle. Endorphin depletion is critical because God designed endorphins to act as natural opioid painkillers or sedatives.

But, as we use music to help with symptoms (singing aloud is best), endorphins are released, and we feel less pain!

Tips for using podcast:

As a retired music therapist and forever church musician and educator, it’s my joy (and suffering need) to share music therapy-inspired podcasts of Scripture and hymns to help each of us who are “weak and wounded, sick and sore.”

It’s for the flaring times, but it helps me to regularly “practice” using it when I’m not in the worst flares. I’m finding these to be even preventative in nature, calming my autonomic nervous system and fostering endorphin release.

Hallelujah to our Great Physician!

Some instructions:

1.     Use noise-cancelling headphones. Eliminate distraction. Close your eyes. Put your body in a comfortable position, ideally lying flat with knees supported by a pillow.

2.     Tap on your body if it’s still hard to focus on the sound.

3.     As you begin to breathe to the music, put one hand on your belly and notice its rise and fall. Fill your belly with air as each Scripture and hymn fills your thoughts.

4.     The beat of the music intentionally offers you musical phrases of inhalations of about 6 beats, a short resting there, and a slow exhale of about 6 beats. Ask God to help you breathe in time to the music and “sing” the hymns in your thoughts, using this set-apart time to worship and adore Him.

5.     Practice as He helps reset your autonomic nervous system, releases His pain-reducing endorphins, and heals the beautifully complex body He’s created for us.