21 Bible verses about healing for anyone still waiting on an answer
Written by Raphael Navarro Schmitt · Reviewed by Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt ·
Short answer
The Bible uses the same word for healing the body and healing what is inside. Psalm 146:3 says God heals the contrite of heart, and James 5:14-16 tells you to send for people who will pray and to confess to one another. In the Gospels, healing almost always starts with someone asking out loud.
People looking up verses about healing are rarely doing research. It is usually the night before a scan, a result that will not come, somebody in a hospital bed, or a tiredness that has gone on too long to have a name. So let us say at the outset what this page does not do: it does not promise an outcome. Scripture has stories of instant healing, and it has Paul asking three times and hearing no.
What it does is show how the subject actually appears in the Bible — and what appears is far less magical and far more physical than we tend to imagine. Jesus touches the leper before he speaks. Four friends open a roof. A woman who has spent everything on doctors pushes through a crowd. James tells you to send for people, anoint with oil and confess out loud. Healing, in these texts, is almost never a private matter.
The list begins with the verses that name God as the one who heals, moves through the gospel scenes, enters the psalmist’s prayers, and ends with the most honest texts of all: the ones about the healing that did not come, and the one that only comes at the end.
All 21 verses, one by one
He heals the contrite of heart, and he binds up their sorrows.
The most quoted verse on the subject, and the one that says least about bodies. It puts a contrite heart and a wound under the same verb, which already answers anyone who treats inner pain as the lesser problem.
Read the chaptersaying: “If you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and obey his commands, and keep all his precepts, I will not bring upon you any of the distress that I imposed on Egypt. For I am the Lord, your healer.”
The first time God introduces himself by this name — "I am the Lord, your healer" — is right after bitter water is made drinkable. Healing enters the Bible as a name, not as an exception.
Read the chapter14Is anyone ill among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15And a prayer of faith will save the infirm, and the Lord will alleviate him. And if he has sins, these will be forgiven him.
16Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be saved. For the unremitting prayer of a just person prevails over many things.
The most practical text in the Bible on this, and everything it tells you to do involves other people: send for them, be anointed, confess. Nobody here prays alone in a bedroom.
Read the chapter2And behold, a leper, drawing near, adored him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you are able to cleanse me.”
3And Jesus, extending his hand, touched him, saying: “I am willing. Be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Watch the order of the gestures: Jesus stretches out his hand and touches him before saying anything. Touching a leper was the thing nobody did — the healing starts by undoing the isolation.
Read the chapter3And they came to him, bringing a paralytic, who was being carried by four men.
4And when they were not able to present him to him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. And opening it, they lowered down the stretcher on which the paralytic was lying.
5Then, when Jesus had seen their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
The detail the text insists on: Jesus saw THEIR faith — the four who carried him and opened the roof. Some days the person lying down cannot believe anything, and the Bible treats that as covered by the people carrying him.
Read the chapter25And there was a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years.
26And she had endured much from several physicians, and she had spent everything she owned with no benefit at all, but instead she became worse.
27Then, when she had heard of Jesus, she approached through the crowd behind him, and she touched his garment.
28For she said: “Because if I touch even his garment, I will be saved.”
29And immediately, the source of her bleeding was dried up, and she sensed in her body that she had been healed from the wound.
Twelve years, several physicians, everything she owned, and getting worse. The evangelist does not soften the frustration with the treatment — and it is this woman, not a serene one, who pushes through the crowd.
Read the chapter33Yet truly, the woman, in fear and trembling, knowing what had happened within her, went and fell prostrate before him, and she told him the whole truth.
34And he said to her: “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace, and be healed from your wound.”
She was already healed when he called her. Which means the conversation was not about her body. Jesus stops an entire crowd so that she leaves with a name — daughter — and not merely without the bleeding.
Read the chapter5And there was a certain man in that place, having been in his infirmity for thirty-eight years.
6Then, when Jesus had seen him reclining, and when he realized that he had been afflicted for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
7The invalid answered him: “Lord, I do not have any man to put me in the pool, when the water has been stirred. For as I am going, another descends ahead of me.”
8Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your stretcher, and walk.”
9And immediately the man was healed. And he took up his stretcher and walked. Now this day was the Sabbath.
Thirty-eight years lying there, and the first thing Jesus does is ask whether he wants to be healed. The question sounds cruel until you notice that a long illness becomes an identity, and letting go of an identity is frightening too.
Read the chapter46And they went to Jericho. And as he was setting out from Jericho with his disciples and a very numerous multitude, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, a blind man, sat begging beside the way.
47And when he had heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and to say, “Jesus, Son of David, take pity on me.”
48And many admonished him to be quiet. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, take pity on me.”
49And Jesus, standing still, instructed him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying to him: “Be at peace. Arise. He is calling you.”
50And casting aside his garment, he leapt up and went to him.
51And in response, Jesus said to him, “What do you want, that I should do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Master, that I may see.”
52Then Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has made you whole.” And immediately he saw, and he followed him on the way.
Bartimaeus shouts, he is told to be quiet, and he shouts louder. This is the text for anyone tired of being polite about it — and Jesus still asks him what he wants instead of assuming.
Read the chapterThen Jesus, responding, said to her: “O woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you just as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
A mother pressing on behalf of her daughter, after an exchange that sounds like a no. Persistence is not a failure of faith in this text: it is what Jesus calls great faith.
Read the chapter6But Peter said: “Silver and gold is not mine. But what I have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, rise up and walk.”
7And taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up. And immediately his legs and feet were strengthened.
8And leaping up, he stood and walked around. And he entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God.
Peter admits up front that he does not have what the beggar asked for. And what he offers instead arrives with an utterly ordinary gesture: he takes him by the hand and lifts him. Healing here has somebody holding an arm.
Read the chapter2Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his recompenses.
3He forgives all your iniquities. He heals all your infirmities.
Forgiveness and healing in the same breath, on the same list of benefits David orders his own soul not to forget. That is not accidental: the Bible keeps insisting on treating the whole person.
Read the chapter3O Lord my God, I have cried out to you, and you have healed me.
4Lord, you led my soul away from Hell. You have saved me from those who descend into the pit.
Testimony in the past tense: I cried out, you healed me. Worth reading on the days when even the asking has worn you out — somebody got to that sentence ahead of you, by the same road.
Read the chapterHeal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved. For you are my praise.
A prayer of two clauses, made by an exhausted prophet. It is short enough to repeat in a waiting room, which is exactly where it tends to be needed.
Read the chapter“Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. And behold, I have healed you. On the third day, you shall ascend to the temple of the Lord.
The answer to Hezekiah names two things: the prayer and the tears. Crying enters the text as part of the request, not as a weakness to be sorted out before praying.
Read the chapterFor I will close up your scar, and I will heal you of your wounds, says the Lord. For they have called you an outcast, O Zion: ‘This is she who has no one asking for her.’ ”
The promise is addressed to a city that had become shorthand for abandonment, and the prophet repeats the nickname people had given her before promising anything. Healing here includes giving back the place in public that the illness took away.
Read the chapterMay the Lord bring him help on his bed of sorrow. In his infirmity, you have changed his entire covering.
The image could not be more domestic: God changing the bedding of a sick person. This is the verse for anyone caring for someone and feeling that what they do is too small.
Read the chapterA joyful soul makes a lifetime flourish. A gloomy spirit dries out the bones.
A three-thousand-year-old proverb saying that the state of your spirit reaches the bones. It is not a prescription for forced optimism — it is a recognition that the two travel together.
Read the chapter7And lest the greatness of the revelations should extol me, there was given to me a prodding in my flesh: an angel of Satan, who struck me repeatedly.
8Because of this, three times I petitioned the Lord that it might be taken away from me.
9And he said to me: “My grace is sufficient for you. For virtue is perfected in weakness.” And so, willingly shall I glory in my weaknesses, so that the virtue of Christ may live within me.
The honest text on this list. Paul asked three times and the answer was no. If your healing has not come, you are not outside the Bible: you are on the page of the man who wrote half the New Testament with an unresolved problem.
Read the chapterBut unto you, who fear my name, the Sun of justice will arise, and health will be in his wings. And you will go forth and leap like the calves of the herd.
Health arrives in the wings of a rising sun, and the reaction described is leaping like calves let out of the herd. It is one of the few places in the Bible where getting better looks like physical, almost childish, delight.
Read the chapterAnd God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. And neither mourning, nor crying out, nor grief shall be anymore. For the first things have passed away.”
Last, because it is the only one that promises the end of every illness. Christian hope does not stop at a particular recovery: it ends in a story where pain no longer has a place.
Read the chapter
Frequently asked questions
What does the Bible say about healing?
It presents God as the one who heals (Exodus 15:26), shows Jesus healing bodies through the Gospels, and uses the same word for inner healing (Psalm 146:3). James 5:14-16 gives the most practical instruction: send for other people, pray, confess. Healing is never something obtained alone and in silence.
Does God always heal those who ask?
The Bible itself answers no. Paul asked three times for something to be taken away and was given grace to carry on with it, in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9. That does not mean the request was refused or the faith was lacking: it means Scripture does not treat healing as the guaranteed output of a well-made prayer.
Does praying replace doctors and treatment?
No. Medicine and human care appear in the Bible without embarrassment, and Luke, who wrote one of the Gospels, is called a physician. Praying and getting treated fit in the same day. Abandoning treatment in the hope of a future healing is not what any of these texts asks for.
Which verse should I read before surgery or a test result?
Jeremiah 17:14 is short enough to repeat in a waiting room, and Psalm 40:4 is about the bed of sickness itself. If you are the one accompanying somebody, Mark 2:3-5 is the text that describes the faith of the people carrying — not of the person lying down.
A prayer to take with you
Lord, you know what hurts in me and what I cannot even name. Heal what can be healed, hold up what cannot yet be, and do not leave me alone in the waiting. Bless the hands of the people looking after me. Amen.