Learning to Believe the Savior Could Heal Me
I knew Jesus Christ could heal all, but drawing upon His healing power in my moment of need was more challenging than I expected.
During a particular part of my mission, I was struggling with a problem that I believed had no solution. Fed up and frustrated, I told a close friend about the situation. After letting me vent, this friend—who was always close to the Spirit—responded very simply, “Have you tried praying about it?”
The answer was sort of yes. Yes, I had tried praying about it before. But not wholeheartedly. I hadn’t prayed with the faith that the Savior can heal all wounds. That was a truth I believed for others but not for myself.
As a missionary, I routinely taught people that they could find healing in Christ. But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that His healing power also applied to me, I never fully believed it.
One day I was overwhelmed by the struggles I was facing. The things I typically found comfort in didn’t seem to be working. I needed something more—I needed a Savior who could heal all wounds. I prayed more fervently than I ever had before, and for the first time, I asked God to help me believe in the healing power that comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
As I studied the Savior’s Atonement and did everything in my power to believe, my mindset started to change. I was “filled with joy, peace, and consolation,”1 and I learned for myself that “all that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”2
Did my healing come through a physical miracle like the ones we hear about in the New Testament? Were there incomprehensible miracles like water turned to wine or a man raised from the dead?
No.
But the healing power I witnessed in my life came through the everyday comfort and peace I received. It came through the unexplainable optimism I felt deep down in my soul. Those things gave me the strength that I needed to make it one more day, one more week, and one more month, all with a smile on my face.
Quite honestly, I didn’t recognize the Savior’s healing power working in my life until some time passed and my trial felt a lot easier to bear. When I reflected on the way I had felt months earlier, before I had sought the help of the Savior, I recognized that I had experienced a miracle. I could clearly see that there was no way I could have overcome the hardships I was experiencing without a loving Savior extending His arms of mercy and healing to me.
I think the truth is that Christ’s healing power is often shown through the small miracles that happen every day, and I was missing that truth all along. Yes, we hear about huge, tangible miracles in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, but I like to think that some of the most significant miracles that happened when Christ was on this earth were probably shown through the simple, unwritten acts of kindness that I’m certain He did daily.
Whether that was through a conversation He had with someone passing on the street that left them with a sense of hope or just through a simple smile that He offered to someone who was cast out from society, I’m sure, like with me, He often healed these people in both small and great ways.
Christ can heal all wounds. He was offering His healing hand to me through ways that I almost overlooked and failed to give Him credit for. And I believe He can do the same for all of us. Like Sister Amy A. Wright, First Counselor in the General Primary Presidency, taught: “We all have something in our lives that is broken that needs to be mended, fixed, or healed. As we turn to the Savior, as we align our hearts and minds with Him, as we repent, He comes to us ‘with healing in His wings’ [2 Nephi 25:13].”3
If you don’t believe that Jesus Christ can heal you, I encourage you to pray for the faith to believe. Pray to have your eyes opened to see the small miracles that happen because of Him daily. Seek Him. I promise that there is no heartache too big or challenge too large for Him to heal—in His own time and in His own way. No one is excluded from the love of the Savior, and that includes you. If you let Him, He will help you find healing from your wounds in His perfect way. He has for me.