The Great Physician

“Who forgives all your iniquities; Who heals all your diseases;”

 Psalm 103:3

As a cancer survivor, I am used to doctor’s appointments. I spend enough time in exam and waiting rooms.

Those of us who are people of faith are familiar with this scripture…

“But when Yahshua heard that, He said unto them, ‘They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.’”

Matthew 9:12; Luke 5:31

Doctors.

“Being sick.”

“Getting well.”

“Getting healed.”

I spend my time, as I wait for appointments and go about my “survivorship,” such as it is, thinking about these words.

I now can relate to “the woman with the issue of blood,” for all the doctors, appointments, blood draws, tests, procedures, and the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain and exhaustion I have experienced.

“And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years.  She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse.

When the woman heard about Yahshua, she came up through the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.  For she kept saying, ‘If only I touch His garments, I will be healed.’  Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

At once Yahshua was aware that power had gone out from Him. Turning to the crowd, He asked, ‘Who touched My garments?’

His disciples answered, “You can see the crowd pressing in on You, and yet You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’”

But He kept looking around to see who had done this.  Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him trembling in fear, and she told Him the whole truth.

 ‘Daughter,’ said Yahshua, ‘your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction.’”

Mark 5:25-34

Affliction.

I’ve had more than one. How about you?

I have a special soft spot in my heart for Mark 5.

It first exploded into my life thirty-one years ago.

My rededication experience, which was heavily influenced through my eating disorders.

As I was seeking The Most High, as I was reading more about my Savior, I, inevitably, came across “Jairus’ Daughter (Mark 5:35-43).

“And besought Him greatly, saying, ‘My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray you, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.”

 Mark 5:23

That account confronted the hopelessness of my eating disorders. And the shame and the fear I had dealing with it at the time.

I saw my hopeless self, in Jairus’ daughter.

I saw my Savior telling me, “Talitha Cumi.”(“Damsel, I say to you, arise”).

I have written, spoken, and thought about Jairus’ daughter a lot over the years.

Scripture really has a way of sticking with you.

Now, however, yes, I think about the other “damsel,” the woman with the issue of blood.

I consider her to be just as much of a “damsel in distress” as that of Jairus’ Daughter.

She is just as in need of The Great Physician as that of that young girl.

Both females’ lives look hopeless.

One is dead. The other has no quality of life.

And now, being a cancer survivor, I spend time, thought, and energy on “quality of life.”

I prefer to keep my interaction with physicians to a “bare necessity.”

And yeah, that “bare necessity” still feels like it is too much.

In all my cancer-related experiences, it is not lost on me how “the woman with the issue of blood” showed up on the scene FIRST before Jairus’ Daughter.

I dealt with eating disorder stuff before cancer.

But, through “the woman with the issue of blood,” FAITH was central and active.

Jairus’ Daughter, let’s face it, before Our Messiah showed up, looked to be only taking a forever dirt nap. We don’t see the twelve-year old girl’s faith.

Maybe we weren’t supposed to…

“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.”

1 Corinthians 13:11

I confess that I get fidgety and itchy about this scripture.

What, exactly, constitutes, “a grown up?”

Has my faith in The Great Physician “grown up?”

To be determined.

But The Great Physician means something else to me than He did through Jairus’ Daughter.

Is it just mortality thoughts at work?

Aging?

Or is it more?

I hope and pray it’s more.

How about you?

Are you waiting for a doctor’s appointment, or for a slew of them?

How many physicians have you had to endure?

Were any of them “great?”

“Heal me, O Elohim, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for You are my praise.”

Jeremiah 17:14

I have faith that He is still at work. He’s healing me in unusual ways, that maybe don’t seem obvious.

But healing is happening.

It is for you as well.

Let’s pray.

Abba-

 I come to You, in The Name of The Master, My Savior, Yahshua.

I come to You, with my issue.

You know what it is.Doctors maybe have not been able to fix it.

Maybe they were not supposed to.

Maybe I am a case for “The Great Physician.”

I seek Him now.

Heal me.

Only You know exactly what that means.

Forgive me and help me.

You know the struggle has been long.

I need You.

Thank You for Your Healing.

I accept and glorify You for it.

I receive it, by faith.

In The Name of Yahshua, I pray.

Amen

Copyright © 2026 by Sheryle Cruse