Topical Study
20 Bible Verses About Healing — Body, Mind and Heart
When we or someone we love is unwell — in body, mind, or heart — we reach for prayer and for Scripture. The Bible speaks often about healing: it presents God as a healer, it records many healings, and it offers words to pray and hold onto while we wait. Here are twenty Bible verses about healing, grouped by the kind of wound they speak to.
A word first: the Bible promises that God heals, but it does not promise that every illness is healed in this life on our timetable. Some of its most faithful figures were not healed when they asked. So these verses are offered not as guarantees to claim, but as truths to trust — about a God who is near to the sick and whose final word over his people is wholeness.
God presented as a healer
Exodus 15:26 — “For I am the LORD who heals you.”
One of the earliest names God gives himself: Yahweh Rapha, the LORD who heals. Healing is not a reluctant act for God; it is part of who he is.
Psalm 103:2-3 — “Bless the LORD, my soul… who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases.”
The psalmist links two mercies: forgiveness and healing. Both flow from the same God.
Jeremiah 17:14 — “Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved, for you are my praise.”
A simple, honest prayer to keep close when you do not know what else to pray.
Verses for physical sickness
James 5:14-15 — “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil… and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick.”
The Bible’s clearest instruction for the sick: do not suffer alone. Call for others to pray with you.
Psalm 41:3 — “The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness.”
Note the word sustain. Sometimes the gift is not instant healing but the strength to endure the sickbed.
Isaiah 53:5 — “He was pierced for our transgressions… and by his wounds we are healed.”
A verse about Christ’s suffering, often prayed over the sick. Its deepest meaning is the healing of our relationship with God through the cross, with physical healing as a foretaste of the wholeness to come.
3 John 1:2 — “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be healthy, even as your soul prospers.”
Verses for a broken heart
Healing in the Bible is never only physical. Some of the deepest wounds are unseen.
Psalm 147:3 — “He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.”
A tender image — God as one who binds wounds gently, as a physician dresses an injury. Heartbreak is not beneath his care.
Psalm 34:18 — “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.”
When you are most broken, this verse insists, God is most near — not distant, not disappointed, but close.
Psalm 73:26 — “My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Even when body and heart fail, God remains the strength underneath.
Verses for a troubled mind
Matthew 11:28-29 — “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest… and you will find rest for your souls.”
For an anxious or exhausted mind, this is an invitation to lay the burden down somewhere safe.
Philippians 4:7 — “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
A peace that “guards” the mind — like a sentry posted over racing thoughts.
Isaiah 26:3 — “You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.”
Verses of hope for ultimate healing
The Bible’s biggest promise about healing is that one day it will be complete.
Revelation 21:4 — “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more.”
This is the horizon of all healing — a future with no more sickness, pain, or death. For those who suffer chronic illness or grief, it is the promise that the present is not the end of the story.
Malachi 4:2 — “But to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will arise with healing in its wings.”
Jeremiah 30:17 — “For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says the LORD.”
More verses about healing
- Psalm 30:2 — “LORD my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me.”
- Proverbs 17:22 — “A cheerful heart makes good medicine.”
- Proverbs 4:20-22 — God’s words are “health to their whole body.”
- 2 Kings 20:5 — “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you.”
- Matthew 9:35 — Jesus went about “healing every disease and every sickness.”
How to pray these verses when you are waiting on healing
If you are praying for healing — for yourself or someone you love — choose one or two of these verses and pray them honestly. Tell God where it hurts; the Psalms give us full permission to do exactly that. Ask boldly for healing, and at the same time trust God’s wisdom and timing, as Jesus did in the garden: “not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).
The God of the Bible is near to the sick and the broken-hearted. Whether healing comes now or in the wholeness to come, his presence in the waiting is itself a kind of healing.
Read more comforting and healing Bible verses, or save today’s verse for someone who is unwell.