Is Our Healing Complete Even When We Don’t Get What “We” Want?
Healing isn’t always proven by outcomes. Sometimes it’s revealed in how we respond when the outcome hasn’t changed. In this moment, the peace of GOD we need is thriving and it replaces the act of striving, and our acceptance softens disappointment.
Here is my question for you (and myself) … If nothing changed externally, would you still consider yourself healed?
If we approach this from a Biblical perspective, healing can be complete even when desired outcomes remain unrealized, because Scripture defines healing as:
Restored trust
Inner peace
Renewed identity
Freedom from compulsion
Contentment rooted in GOD’s Presence
External change is valued, but it is NEVER the PRIMARY proof of the physical wholeness of the dust we are living in.
When the situation is still stressful, and the conflict isn’t resolved, where are you and I? Are we to always expecting outward (physical) change, when the grave is filled with those who never experienced it?
When we learn to seek the internal change, that is when we realize there is more to our faith and longing(s). As we learn to wait on the Lord for real change, we will no longer feel sensitive or overwhelmed. You and I can stay calm, grounded, and helpful instead of uneasy, concerned or defensive.
STRENGTH is noticeable when the problem remains, but it no longer controls your nervous system.
The obsession to ‘make GOD see what we think He is missing’ is an interesting take on our faith and hope. Do you faithful ones perceive that the eyes of GOD have not noticed the world (things) He has spoken into existence? What of the beings He made with His hands, as a potter makes (creates) pottery on his wheel?
What do we gain when we start letting go of the fixation for EVERYTHING and EVERYONE to be healed and/or restored?
What do we do now, when the outward result remains unchanged? Better-known cases (scenario for such a struggle will be) — The relationship didn’t reconcile, and/or Jesus did not heal my relative (whichever one it may be).
NOTE: GOD offers His Shalom at every turn and for each situation. Do we take it? Not usually at first (…if at all). However, when we do accept His gift for His Shalom, the internal change takes place and we learn to rest in Him and His will, that are both at work inside His Plan for THAT situation! When the Peace of GOD takes up residence on the inside of us, we stop replaying conversations, we stop rehearsing apologies or waiting for closure. Rather, our peace no longer depends on their response—because we have realized what we’ve been rejecting all along. Him! We lacked Him.
NOTE:You may still grieve (necessary for loss)—but without compulsive attachment.
Any time a person takes up residence in the identity of grief, a sneaky danger begins to move in with you. This is a revelation that juuuuust hit home today. GOD allows us to grieve. There are times (Scripturally), when that has not been so, or He does not want us to spend time on things that are not/were not in line with His will or plan. Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Samuel are a few symbols I can think of right now, I too have been one of those who has not been allowed to grieve over a specific “loss.” I have come to understand why that is the case. “MY” loss honors the Lord in ways I had to learn to grow through to understand.
When loss stops being something we carry and starts being who we are, our circumstances, role, or status haven’t improved. We have not moved through it/them. We got lost and stuck THERE.
When people… Myself included are no longer defined by, nor consider our worth to be defined by those circumstances, we will begin to feel whole without needing validation, success, or approval. We can NOW begin the moving on phase and restoration can take place.
Here is a very popular situation: SICKNESS. When the illness, loss, or limitation remains, when will we accept what is likely the will of GOD at that moment? Will we continue to fight for something that the Righteous One has deemed “not for you” at this time?
David, fought for (fasted, pleaded and prayed) for his child with Bathsheba, The child died. Did King David continue to wail, whine and complain to GOD? Did he get angry with Him because He let the child die? “GOD, YOU let him die. You could have healed him if you wanted to!” NOW, we are MAD because He did not do what we selfishly wanted of Him. What happened to our humble submission?
When the illness,illness, loss, or limitation remains, will we continue to faithfully pursue His face, or retreat into the spiritual and dusty abyss or faithlessness?
When you and I stopresisting reality with anger or bitterness, we eventually learn the acceptance creates space for meaning, adaptation, and self‑compassion.
NOTE: Healing (ours) doesn’t mean liking what happened—it means no longer fighting what is.
When we choose hope over compulsion, we respond with a focused attention instead of automatically. Old patterns do lose their grip, even though the trigger hasn’t disappeared. There IS a way freedom can exist before circumstances change.
Here is a sign of our acknowledgment and maturity: when the desired result is still unchanged, hope moves from “this must happen” to “I will be okay either way.”
We must individually leave room for self‑compassion. You still make mistakes or face setbacks, when situations remain unchanged. In that, we can know that shame no longer narrates the story we are living in. We must treat ourselves with patience rather than punishment. Compassion begins at home (in the self)—before it can flow outward to the neighbor. Hope has to be anchored to something (or Someone). If there’s truly nothing to reach for—no GOD, no meaning, no promise, no trustworthy person—then what we usually call “hope” collapses into either wishful thinking (“maybe it’ll work out”) or denial (“I’ll pretend it doesn’t hurt.”)
Hope anchored in GOD (Biblical hope). We can still echo these words to our own self: “GOD is with me, GOD is good, and GOD WILL carry me—either way this goes.”
Soo… Can there be Peace without resolution? The Bible says there can be.
Jesus promises Shalom in Him, not a problem-free life.
John 16:33 — “In Me you may have peace… in the world you will have tribulation.”
John 14:27 — “My Shalom I give to you… not as the world gives…”
GOD’s Peace can exist without understanding (without answers). Philippians 4:6–7 — Peace that “surpasses understanding” and guards the heart. Peace is tied to GOD’s Presence, not to the closure of the pain. Isaiah 26:3 — “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You.”
You do know that you and I can weep honestly and still be steady inside. Many Psalms hold grief + trust at the same time –Psalm 42 & Psalm 13
Every struggle, hurt and trial has the potential to pull us closer and not send us further. In Scripture, trials are not punishments — they are invitations of opportunity.
They invite us to lean on His Word instead of our assumptions. …and we have assumptions. Don’t we? We assume that EVERYTHING WILL get better because we asked Him to make it so.
Surrendering our timeline is how we stop treating GOD like a last-resort Helper and start relating to Him as “LORD.”—and it’s why we finally experience His faithfulness as something lived, not merely believed.
It becomes lived when we stop demanding proof on our schedule and start noticing His steadiness in the ordinary: daily bread, timely restraint, unexpected strength, and peace that holds. ALL of this arrives while nothing around us has changed.
We discover His faithfulness “in real time” because faithfulness is often revealed through provision during the wait, not just after we achieve what we want. Strength, peace, clarity, conviction, “daily bread,” timely help are all real-time mercies of GOD’s, for US.
His Shalom is a fruit of His Presence, not a reward for resolution. Shalom isn’t “problem-free,” it’s “GOD-WITH-me.” –John 14:27 & 16:33
NOTE: Since trials expose what we’re anchored to, and outcomes don’t change, we find out whether our hope was in GOD—or in the result.
When everything is stripped away, the soul finally says, “Your Word is enough for me.”
Do you recall that Yeshua explicitly prepares His followers for the reality that life may remain difficult even when one is spiritually whole. He promises peace in Him, not exemption from hardship, telling His disciples they will still experience trouble in the world,yet can remain untroubled internally –John 16:33 & John 14:27
Biblically, peace is not the reward for resolution—it is the fruit of GOD’s Presence. Jesus promised that trouble would still exist in the world, yet His followers could remain internally steady because His Peace is not “as the world gives.”
Biblically, “healing” is often described as restoration of the inner person. Scripture regularly speaks of healing in emotional and spiritual terms—GOD “binding up the brokenhearted” and restoring the inner life long before (or even without) changing outward situations—Psalm 147:3 & Psalm 34:18
REMINDER: The emphasis that GOD focus is not merely on removing pain but on changinghow pain is carried.
Contentment is learned independent of outcomes. That is usually a foreign thought, because we are often listening to people or misapplying what the context of GOD’s word is expressing. The Bible gives us this wonderful nugget of gold, “contentment with godliness is great gain.”
Once more, the Scriptures describe “learning to be content in any and every circumstance,” including seasons of lack, imprisonment, and unresolved suffering (Philippians 4:11‑12). When we don’t have the job, we want is another, I will slide in here. The ‘GOD’ side of that is… You are eating and have a house to live in.
Biblical wholeness does not require that circumstances improve—only that the heart learns trust, surrender, and sufficiency in GOD.
When we say “GOD’s Ways are different,” we’re not talking about a small difference. We’re talking about an altogether approach and end-product, for a grander purpose.
Nothing is wasted in GOD’s hands. He is a REALLY good Potter. Every trial we face becomes a classroom of GOD’s Glory, not our focus.
Every situation, every delay, every ache becomes an environment and opportunity for those who really trust Him to learn to honestly understand His Ways better and know more about how He wants to lead and mature us.
We are NOT all going to be trained and taught in the same manner. Some will experience outcomes that will give us a great amount of external joy. How long will that last?
On the flip side, the joy the other individual will be on the inside, while the outside seems to be a fracture.
Each of these locations will be a place where GOD reveals Himself.
Each of these locations will be a place where we learn to trust His voice.
Each of these locations will be a place where our false strengths die.
Each of these locations will be a place where His strength becomes visible.
REMINDER: This may be a light bulb moment—pain is not proof of GOD’s absence; pain is often the very place where His nearness becomes undeniable.
He does not abandon you in the breaking.
He meets you there—close, steady, and faithful.
What hurts may be the very place He is holding you most.
Learning that GOD's Ways are drastically different than what we can consider as BEST for US, will reveal our inside to the outside. Every situation, trial and pain moment is here to glorify GOD and assist His children to draw closer to Him and leaning on His every Word.