Loving, Powerful God Who Heals: Why Not Me?

Healing and invisible disabilities is a thorny question. So, Loving, Powerful God Who Heals: Why Not Me?

I don't know. But today, I'd like to put forth some possibilities as we consider the subject.

If God can heal me, why won't He?

A thorny question, one Christians and non-Christians alike wrestle with.

For the last 2000 years, people have sought a definitive answer to this query and failed to find one. Many books have been written about the subject. Countless sermons have been preached on it. Theologians disagree concerning the issue.

For two years following my first injuries, I thought that after I recovered, I’d live normally again. When that didn’t happen, I sought to bargain with God. As Joe was a pastor, I basically said to God, “We have

Working with her laptop while semi-resting

invested our lives in Your ministry, so You should heal me.” But that didn’t work. God does not owe us just because we do good. I struggled off-and-on, wanting to be healed. But I concluded God has His own plan.

I unequivocally believe God can and does heal today. Yet, He has not healed me. How do I reconcile my belief with my reality? After much study and even more prayer, I am convinced of three things.

1. God loves me. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world … .”
2. He is all-powerful. Job 9:4: “God is wise and all-powerful.”
3. God doesn’t do things the way I think they should be done. Isaiah 55:6-7: “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.”

With these thoughts in mind, I choose to trust Him anyway:

• God loves me;
• He sustains me;
• He encourages me;
• God enables me to navigate my storms.

What is the question?

Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic since nineteen, a well-known leader with a national and international outreach to disabled people, maintains the question is not, "Can God heal?" Nor is it, "Does God heal today?" Rather, it should be, "Does God will to heal all those who truly come to him in faith?" Put another way, "Is miraculous healing always His first and best option?"

Joe and I believe God reserves the right to heal or not according to His knowledge and ways.

So what are some reasons He may not heal?

What good can come from not being healed?

So, can we trust Him anyway?

What are some reasons for lack of healing?

• We've heard the accusations:
  • you just don't have enough faith
  • or you must have unconfessed wrongdoing in your life.
    • Although these may occasionally be a reason for not being healed, we do not believe these explanations hold up biblically or experientially as the only answers.
• Other possibilities exist: timing; lessons; God’s plans for your life—or maybe other people’s lives; maybe as many as the number of people involved.
• Sometimes, we just don’t know.
  • But God knows, and He loves you.

What good can come?

• Strengthened character traits.
• Others receive the blessing of helping someone.
• Know God in a deeper way.
• Bring comfort to other hurting people.
  • Because of Joni’s work, many disabled people worldwide have seen their lives made easier.
  • Sam Moss, who suffers from a rare bone disease, encourages others with her blog, and Facebook group of 1700, Medical Musings with Friends.

Why should I trust God anyway?

• God is our Creator.
• He loves people.
• God sent Jesus.
• God takes care of us.

In closing

God IS good. And God IS powerful. God also loves us beyond our comprehension. But for  reasons known only to Himself, God lets bad things happen; He lets bad things continue to happen. Despite humanity’s unworthiness, still God displays His love for people by His salvation through Jesus and His sustaining of people throughout their hardships.