Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

I find it interesting to compare the normal healing process to God’s miracles. Here we have a man who clearly would have had some major reason for being lame. This could have been related to damage to his spine, to some deformity in his legs, to nerves not working correctly, or I am sure to any number of different things. We might have found this out with some of our technology today. He might have even been able to be helped to walk in some restricted way today, with months, or more likely years, of rehab.

But God healed this man’s problem that was making him lame. He also healed his atrophied muscles and weak tendons, which would have taken time to build back up to support his movement. And he did not just partially heal him to kind of walk again. Full balance has been restored. He is now not just walking, but jumping too!

In all of the healings of Jesus, the prophets, and the disciples listed in scripture, I have never seen any partial healings. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t heal this way. But it is clear that when he chooses to physically heal through a person it is typically a complete healing. Why? To show his glory along with the healing.

Now let’s compare this to when the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts. He also is not satisfied with partial healing. No! He restores our hearts to the relationship with God that we were intended for all along — direct and vibrant communion with him. He will not leave the obedient halfway healed.

Paul references this in Philippians: “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭4‬-‭6‬)

So today, I can be confident that just like the complete physical healings in scripture, God plans to completely heal and restore me to himself. All I have to do is follow and obey. And he continues to build up my spiritual muscles for greatness!

Lord, thank you for your desire to heal and restore all of the parts of my heart that have either been damaged by my sin or by others or this sinful world. Just like your healing of this lame man, you can bring “jumping joy” to our hearts too!