It reminded my of various times when I have heard that if someone was praying for healing and they did not receive it, that they (or someone praying for them) didn't have enough faith. That just didn't make sense to me. If every Christian who prayed for healing was "supposed to" be healed, why were there people who had health issues, children in wheelchairs and why did Christians die? One person who was teaching that all Christians could be healed even had crippled hands, but apparently that was somehow beside the point. I remember bringing up Joni Eareckson Tada. "Never heard of her" was the response I got, and because he had never heard of her, her story didn't matter.
Here is just a little bit of her story. As a teenager, Joni was very active and loved riding horses. Then one day, her life changed. She was swimming and dove into an area that was too shallow. She broke her neck and became a quadriplegic. She struggled with depression and anger and begged her friends to help her end her life. She felt as though her faith in God had been betrayed. It was a long journey, but God has used this tragic accident to glorify Himself. Joni went on to found Joni and Friends, a ministry that helps to provide encouragement and supplies to disabled people around the world. She has authored 48 books, the first of which is titled Joni and tells the story of her accident and her many struggles and how God turned her life around. She also starred in a movie about her life, has recorded several albums, and has a daily radio show.
Today, I was looking in my hymnal and the first songs I came to were "Praise Him! Praise Him!" and "Blessed Assurance". Both of these hymns were written by Fanny Crosby. What's that have to do with healing (or lack of it)? Fanny Crosby was blinded by an incompetent Doctor when she was six-weeks-old. When they took her, at the age of five, to an eye-specialist, he told her that she would never see again. She could have become discontent with her life and complained because she couldn't see or go to school with the other children. Instead, at age eight, she wrote her first poem:
0 what a happy soul am I! Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy, that other people don't.
To weep and sigh because I'm blind, I cannot and I won't!
She went on to write over 8,000 poems which were set to music and are well-known hymns to this day.
These are just two stories of people who were able to use their disability for the glory of God. I am not saying that he couldn't have used them otherwise, just that perhaps, the degree to which He was able to use them was greater.
There are times when God does heal people, either through the knowledge of Doctors and the use of medicines, or through miraculous means.
There are times though, when there is no miraculous healing. There is either the strength to live with the hardship, or there is the call to come home.
And that one is the hardest for us that are left behind. Why didn't God heal them? They could still be living. That's where is comes back to understanding that "There is a God, and I'm not Him." Pastor Roger also spoke about how, when Pastor Jim was in the hospital, Ms. Lynn shared a lesson she had learned when her father had died and was clinging to again. (Quotation is approximate) "He who says, 'I am the God that healeth thee' is the same God who says 'it is appointed unto man once to die.'" All we can do is go on and trust that God knows what He is doing.
