You might be wondering how self-control and believing for healing is related. When I was cut to the heart after hearing a series of scriptures that supported that God's plan is to heal everyone and anyone, anytime, anywhere, always...it changed the trajectory of our lives. The word of the bible was immediately quickened to my heart (John 5:21). The meaning of the Greek word "quicken" means "to make alive". The word was instantly made alive in my heart and I mixed it with faith (Hebrews 4:2), believing that my son would receive the healing already paid for on the cross (1 Peter 2:24).

Yet that healing didn't manifest right away, even though I adamantly believed for it. Nothing, except perhaps faith, is actually required. When my son's ears were still bothered by noises, my response to his reaction had to change. It was a "requirement" (that I put on myself) in order for my faith to stand firm. An action step, if you will (James 2:24). When we walked into a grocery store with fluorescent lights or outside into the bright sun and his eyes were bothered, I "required" myself to throw out my fears and worries. When he was unable to have a toothbrush brush his teeth, I could no longer stress about what might happen or how things would turn out. I required myself to be controlled in my soul (mind/will/emotions). I had to on-purpose stop my thoughts from going down the usual rabbit trail of being troubled and fretting about the long-term picture. 

I could no longer choose panic when he melted down over the smallest thing. I could not longer handle things the way I always did or dip down into depression. NO! I had to rise up on the inside with faith and imagine what the Lord had set out for his future. I had to see my son well on my mind's eye first. 

Some ways I put my self-imposed requirement of self-control into our situation: I took deep breaths, I closed my eyes, I saw the stripes and the blood of Christ. I knew in my heart it was shed for my child. I saw in my minds eye my son's healing as done. I imagined the things we would do together and pictured it. I did not allow what was before my physical eyes to interfere with what was stirring on the eyes of my heart. 

"A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones."          

Proverbs 17:22