How Can I Be Healed?

Jesus Christ is the Master Healer.

After the destruction which coincided with His death and resurrection, while the people mourned their lost loved ones, they heard the Savior’s voice announcing all of the cities which had been destroyed. After enumerating the losses, which indicated that He was fully aware of the scale of the calamity, He issued an invitation:

O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you? (3 Nephi 9:13).

Whether the people recognized it or not, this was a more hopeful version of the principle taught to Isaiah when he was called as a prophet. The Lord told Isaiah that the people would harden their hearts, close their eyes, and refuse to listen, “lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and be healed” (Isaiah 6:10, 2 Nephi 16:10, Matthew 13:15, John 12:40, Acts 28:26-27).

Jesus Christ has the power to heal us, but we must be willing to seek and accept the healing He offers.

Later, during His visit, He invited the people to bring forward everyone who needed healing: the sick, the lame, the blind, the halt, the maimed, the leprous, the withered, the deaf, or “they that are afflicted in any manner” (3 Nephi 17:7). Those sound like physical disabilities to me, but He can also heal wounds which are unseen. In one of my favorite passages from Isaiah, the prophet speaks with the voice of the Savior:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified (Isaiah 61:1-3).

I will admit that I can relate to some of the infirmities described in this passage. I think I know what “the spirit of heaviness” feels like, for example. I have been “brokenhearted” before. I know what it’s like to mourn. Projects I have poured time and energy into have crumbled to “ashes,” and I have been in situations where my options were limited and I felt like I was “bound.”

To me, it’s comforting to know that Christ can heal not only physical wounds but also emotional, mental, and spiritual ones. I know that the pattern is the same: I must seek Him and ask for His healing power. I must exercise faith in Him. And I must be willing to receive the healing He offers to me.

As Elder Neil L. Anderson has promised:

For you, the righteous, the Healer of our souls, in His time and His way, will heal all your wounds. No injustice, no persecution, no trial, no sadness, no heartache, no suffering, no wound—however deep, however wide, however painful—will be excluded from the comfort, peace, and lasting hope of Him whose open arms and whose wounded hands will welcome us back into His presence (“Wounded,” General Conference, October 2018).

Today, I will seek for the healing of Jesus Christ, for myself and for those I love. I will remember that His healing power is not limited to physical wounds but extends to every injury, every trauma, every suffering we experience. In His time, if we trust in Him, He will heal every wound.