“The healing that Jesus offered for sick bodies was to penetrate to the very depths of one’s being. Transformed lives, healed from the inside out, are to be the order of the day when God becomes king.” [1]
I must be honest. I did not understand the great depths of Jesus’ healing until I read, and reread again, these two sentences from N. T. Wright’s book, “Simply Jesus“.
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I think many people, including myself just barely scratch the surface of what Jesus did accomplish and what Jesus can still accomplish in our lives if we let him.
Let me explain what I mean by this. If we let him, Jesus can heal us. I do not mean a healing of physical symptoms. I mean a deeper healing. I mean a healing that makes us feel whole and loved by the great Creator of this universe.
This is a healing that produces an inner peace. Despite the world’s outer chaos, we are calm on the inside. This is a healing when we experience an inner joy for life that we just did not have before.
This is a healing that seals us with an inner confidence that lets us know that all will be ok. Lastly, this is a healing that seems to allow us to tap into wisdom that previously was not there.
How do we let God’s healing penetrate our souls? I believe contemplative practices aid us in this process. A contemplative practice is one in which we let go of us and rest in God. We let God do the work. We let God act in us. We simply ‘let go’ and let God act.
I believe each person needs to find the contemplative practice that best lets him or her ‘rest’ in God. For me it is silent prayer. More specifically, it is a daily centering prayer practice. It is a practice that I enter with no expectations. I simply sit with Jesus because I love him.
Even though I have no expectations I am always pleasantly surprised and amazed by the fruits of silent prayer. I have noticed an inner calmness despite the outer chaos. I have noticed an inner confidence despite the outer confusion. I have noticed that silent prayer teaches me how to live. It seems to show me what it is I need for that very day.
Jesus heals me during silent prayer. If you let him, Jesus will also heal you. He will penetrate the very depths of your soul. Jesus will heal and transform you!
Click here to purchase Simply Jesus.
Go Further:
N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus: A New Vision Of Who He Was. What He Did. And Why It Matters.
N. T. Wright, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good
N. T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is
N. T. Wright, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense
N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
Amos Smith, Healing the Divide: Recovering Christianity’s Mystic Roots
Amos Smith, Be Still and Listen: Experience the Presence of God in Your Life
Courses by N. T. Wright:
N. T. Wright, In The Day the Revolution Began, N. T. Wright once again challenges commonly held Christian beliefs as he did in his acclaimed Surprised by Hope. Demonstrating the rigorous intellect and breathtaking knowledge that have long defined his work, Wright argues that Jesus’ death on the cross was not only to absolve us of our sins; it was actually the beginning of a revolution commissioning the Christian faithful to a new vocation—a royal priesthood responsible for restoring and reconciling all of God’s creation.
N. T. Wright, In this course Simply Jesus, students will be immersed in the 1st Century A.D. context of the life, work, teachings, and actions of Jesus of Nazareth. The goal of the course is to look at the story of Jesus from the perspective of a historian. Too many times Jesus of Nazareth becomes interpreted as simply another ‘religious figure’ among many religious figures. But this so often eliminates the understanding of a man who lived in time and space at a critical time of history.
N. T. Wright, How do we know that Jesus was actually raised from the dead in bodily form? This course with Prof. N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, examines the extraordinary claim that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead in a bodily fashion to appear in person to people after his cruel death, crucifixion, and entombment. This journey will look at the ancient world’s understanding of the afterlife from Jewish and Greek perspectives along with the implications of their understandings as it relates to the early Christian claim of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
N. T. Wright, Simply Good News is an introductory course based on the teachings of Prof. N.T. Wright and his book bearing the same title. The student will be guided through the idea of what ‘good news’ meant to the 1st Century person living in the Roman Empire. The course will also guide the student to understand how that ‘good news’ is to be understood by readers of the New Testament in the 21st Century.
N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography – N. T. Wright’s definitive biography of Paul reveals the apostle’s lasting role in Christian history as an inventor of new paradigms for how we understand Jesus and what he accomplished. Wright celebrates Paul’s stature as one of the most effective and influential intellectuals in human history, while shedding fresh light on his writings, thoughts, and ideas. Consider these remarkable facts: Paul’s writing occupy less than 90 pages in a modern translation yet they have, page per page, generated more sermons, books, monographs, and journal articles than any other writings from the ancient world.
Themes in the Gospel of John by N. T. Wright: The course approaches the Gospel of John in a way that looks at seven key themes. These themes bind the Fourth Gospel together in a manner that allows us to see this ‘new way of living’ as possible for followers of King Jesus. In so doing, we then apply these themes to the current era in order to ask ourselves questions about how we are putting them into practice. In a way, this is the story of how to live out being the presence of God on earth through the indwelling of God’s spirit.
[1] N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus: A New Vision Of Who He Was. What He Did. And Why It Matters. (HarperOne: 2011)
