I don’t know what you think about healing and God, but I would bet my small toe you’re interested in it. As for me, I’m fascinated and I believe it’s possible. I’ve seen people’s legs grow with my own pair of beady eyes. I’ve seen people with years of back pain walk away without a remaining twinge, and it’s never returned again. I’ve been told stories by good friends of doctors shocked because the results of a report are impossible. Yet they can not deny the results they see.
I believe in prayer. I believe God is our healer and we should ask him to heal us of our sicknesses. But sometimes, no matter hard we ask, how much burning faith we have in our beating hearts, or how many scriptures we quote and cupcakes we fast… God doesn’t heal.
It’s human nature to try and understand this. To try find a reason and a place to put the blame. We don’t like “why” questions which we have no answer for. We don’t like things that can make you questions God’s goodness. It doesn’t make sense to heal some people, and not others.
To be honest, I don’t have an answer to this question. I wish it was a straight forward equation with a right and wrong answer. It isn’t. God can not be put in a box, theorised or manipulated. He is God and he will do what he wishes. We have to believe his plan is best.
However, this aside, if we go through the Bible we do learn of God’s character and in reading it discover some of the possible explanations for why God chooses not to heal.
Your pain is part of your gift
I have an amazing friend who is disabled in her one arm. Her disability has meant she was bullied as a child. Every year she would stand in front of her classmates and tell them why she was different. She would say “God made me this way.” She couldn’t play sports like other kids and simple things like writing required years of physiotherapy. The disability, although a challenge, meant that she grew a rare tenacity and courage.
Four years ago my friend came out to South Africa to volunteer and ended up finding a school for special needs children where she could help out. Two years later she returned to America to start an NGO aimed at helping children with special needs. Her arm has given her a platform, which she would never had, had had she been “normal”.
I’ve asked her before: would you want a normal hand? When a healing evangelist comes to our church, people asked her if she was going to go forward for healing. “No,” she responded. “I believe God made me like this so I could help these children, and I won’t stop until I do.”
Maybe, our pain and difficulties enable us to give more to the world than we otherwise would without them.
Your testimony could be your strength
Everyone loves the easy win, the immediate response, the prayer and the visible evidence. Sometimes, the greatest way God is glorified is through your strength. It’s easy to say a prayer and be well; it’s not so easy to remain strong, walk through the pain with a good attitude, and to encourage another person.
I remember visiting some old ladies in a home for the elderly. They did not have very many visitors and they did not have many earthly comforts. Their life was a simple passing of time. Many of them were in a great deal of pain, and yet when someone new came to talk to them or give them something their faces lit up with joy. That joy in the midst of suffering was admirable, beautiful, and moving. That joy was more of a testimony to me than a lot of other things.
Pain teaches us empathy
We’ve all dealt with pain in some way. For some the pain is more emotional, for others it is physical. When I meet someone who has gone or is going through something difficult, because of all I have been through, I am able to identify and empathise with this person. Pain is a part of the human experience. Nobody likes it and yet it draws us together and draws us towards God. When we are weak, he is strong.
Friend, I don’t know if or why God does or doesn’t heal, but I do know this: as Moses said (Deuteronomy 31:6), “Do not be afraid or terrified … for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
No matter what pain you face, you do not have to face it alone. We do not have all the answers, but this we do know: God loves us and he is always there for us.