For years, years, I have been troubled with people who prayed and “believed God” for a miracle, got healed, and proclaimed their experience for others to believe, too.
Don’t misunderstand. I was happy for them. I understood their thankfulness and desire to make known what prayer can do.
I was not troubled with them.
I was troubled with the people who believed God, too, and did not get healed.
In my 40 years of being surrounded and involved with understanding faith and prayer, I can count on one hand how many people have been healed.
We have to do something with this. Because there are a whole lot of people who are confused and discouraged. And I think God cares about this.
I believe in prayer simply because the scriptures are clear.
Yet, I think we should be careful about isolating a scripture and building so much upon it that we have created inaccuracy. Because God cares about those people who were not healed and are broken-hearted.
It only poses questions such as, “Doesn’t God love me?”, “Didn’t I have enough faith?”
I don’t believe God wants that for anyone.
I have struck a balance in my life of praying for good but accepting the bad. Too much either way causes problems.
Many contemporary churches emphasize Bible believing Christians doing greater works than Jesus.
Hmm. If that were the case, where are all the miracles, healing, and deliverance?
If some can proclaim what they see, some should be able to proclaim what they don’t see. This is not a lack of faith. In fact, I think it reflects a very deep kind of faith which is not based on personal experience, but acknowledges that we do not see and understand everything.
Faith isn’t always visible. Faith can weather many disappointments and still rest firmly on God’s promises, and ultimately, the last chapter of the book when everything concludes:
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away.
I often think about the people who endured suffering throughout the centuries. Read their biographies. Sing their hymns. They still speak to us today, “the great cloud of witnesses”. What truths did they build their life on that contemporary Christian thinking has all but ignored?
What ever you are facing, let your faith find its place. And while I cannot promise a miracle, I can promise wherever you plant yourself, your roots will go deep and sustain you for the rest of your life…
until God fixes everything in eternity.
Death is like a storm.
when it hurts 