There are several very good reasons why supernatural healing (here meaning healing by God’s intervention) has fallen out of favour in many circles. Some of these I mention in the message today. But it is still something God does, so I want to find God’s good intention in this thing, and make peace with it.
I recently watched part of a video of a person who claimed they had been healed by God, and then read the comments. Most people seemed to think that going around telling people what God had done was evil. Why? Because of those suffering the same problem who are not healed.
The common complaint is essentially this: if God exists and God is all-powerful, yet God agrees only to heal some and not others, then God is behaving in an evil fashion. I address this problem particularly in my message.
But let me say here that I do believe that God only chooses to heal some, and failure to be healed is not generally a lack of faith, or unrepented sin, or any of the other excuses I’ve heard people offer. It is God’s choice, which we will not understand.
The one pattern I have noticed over the years is this – if we do not pray, God does not heal. But there are greater things with God than the state of our physical bodies, and God has addressed these very thoroughly.
If we valued more highly the life that God gives us through Jesus, which is eternal, we would perhaps understand that the healing and health of this fragile mortal body is of lesser importance. But in our day the value of the gift of eternal life is diminished in our eyes, and so our desperation to extend this life is increased.
In the end we blame God for not thoroughly covering the lesser, while we at the same time undervalue the greater. I suspect that God is not in the wrong, but the error lies with us.
Oh that we could see God at work more clearly, that more people might accept the gift of life through Jesus. Here Jesus meets us equally, and all are welcome.
Jane Lourey Scott have a look at the message delivered by our minister on Sunday. It was a great message and gave me much comfort.