{"id":1064,"date":"2018-03-02T01:30:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T06:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2018-03-02T01:30:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T06:30:20","slug":"why-doesnt-god-always-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/why-doesnt-god-always-heal\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Doesn\u2019t God Always Heal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/bed1.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1065\" src=\"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/bed1-300x200.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/bed1-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/bed1.webp 379w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Why Doesn\u2019t God Always\u00a0Heal?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>We acknowledge God has all power and can heal, but \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite accounts in the life of Jesus occurs in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Mark+5&amp;version=NIV\">Mark 5<\/a>. Jairus came to Jesus on behalf of his sick daughter, and Jesus willingly went with the man. On the way, though, they are slowed down when an older woman sought healing simply by touching Jesus\u2019 garments. Bam! She was healed.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the little girl died. Jairus could\u2019ve been cheesed with the old woman for causing the delay or been mad at Jesus for allowing Himself to be distracted from the original goal. Jesus was not swayed, though. He went to the home of Jairus, and in spite of others\u2019 disbelief and even laughter, He raised the young girl back to life.<\/p>\n<p>I love this passage because it shows that nothing limits Jesus\u2019 power and ability to heal.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An old woman<\/li>\n<li>A young girl<\/li>\n<li>Power over a chronic condition<\/li>\n<li>Power over death<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We give lip service to Jesus\u2019 healing power, but we wonder why He doesn\u2019t always do that\u2014Every. Single. Time. I don\u2019t have a once-size-fits-all answer, but I do know this:<\/p>\n<p><strong>God\u2019s focus is greater than ours.<\/strong> We focus on ourselves and do everything we can to live pleasure-filled, pain-free lives. There\u2019s no room for suffering in that scenario. We focus on ourselves but God focuses in His greater, eternal kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>During His three years of ministry, Jesus didn\u2019t heal everyone. At the <a href=\"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/bed2.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1066\" src=\"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/bed2-300x200.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/bed2-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/bed2.webp 341w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>beginning of His ministry, Jesus was in Capernaum. Word spread about His presence, and \u201cJesus healed many who had various diseases\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=mark+1&amp;version=NIV\">Mark 1:34<\/a>). He could\u2019ve stayed and healed more, but Jesus left for another town \u201cso I can preach there also. That is why I have come\u201d (v. 38). His focus was on bringing people into His eternal kingdom, not simply making them feel better.<\/p>\n<p>That sounds harsh. Jesus does love us and care about us, but we have such short-sighted goals. Consider this: every person Jesus healed\u2014<em>everyone<\/em>\u2014eventually died. In other words, the healing was temporary, but those who embraced His kingdom live with Him today.<\/p>\n<p><em>But if God loves me, He wouldn\u2019t want me to suffer, would He?<\/em> The presence of pain does not negate the presence of His love. Perhaps in His love, He desires to give us something far greater than the physical healing we seek.<\/p>\n<p><strong>God grows us through our our pain.<\/strong> We think God should fix things <em>now<\/em>, but He may choose to use the trials we face to grow us closer to Him. Pain has a way of getting our attention. We\u2019re drawn to seek Him in prayer, to depend on Him. If we let Him, God will bring us to a greater place. We want relief; but He wants us to receive something greater: His undeniable love and presence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>God promises a pain-free eternity.<\/strong> That\u2019s hard to hold on to when the pain is present and we cry for relief now, but we can\u2019t lose sight of the temporariness of it all.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not just offering ivory-tower theology with no basis in how life operates. I\u2019ve lived with a chronic disease for 37 years. I\u2019m thankful for the medicine at my disposal, but how I deal with it calls for an understanding that what I\u2019m dealing with is temporary. This life is but a moment compared to the life that awaits me with Christ for eternity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So what do we do?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong> Pray.<\/strong> Yes, Jesus does heal. He doesn\u2019t always heal, but neither does He never heal.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>\u201cIs anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders\u00a0of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil\u00a0in the name of the Lord.\u00a0And the prayer offered in faith\u00a0will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up\u201d<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=James+5\">Jas. 5:14-15<\/a>).<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><strong> Trust.<\/strong> God knows what is best\u2014He knows just what we need\u2014and He will always answer out of His love. Even when it doesn\u2019t make sense to us, trust that He has heard and He answers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>\u201c\u2018For my thoughts\u00a0are not your thoughts,\u00a0neither are your ways my ways,\u2019\u00a0declares the\u00a0Lord. \u2018As the heavens are higher than the earth,\u00a0so are my ways higher than your ways\u00a0and my thoughts than your thoughts&#8217;\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=isa+55&amp;version=NIV\">Isa. 55:8-9<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><strong> Rejoice.\u00a0<\/strong> Sounds weird, huh? But if we\u2019ve prayed, our faith in Christ leads us to trust that whatever answer He gives is just what we need. Rejoice in His love.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>\u201cConsider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,\u00a0because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.\u00a0Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature\u00a0and complete, not lacking anything\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=James+1\">Jas. 1:2-4<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"textLayer\">\n<div>by Lynn H. Pryor, lynnhpryor.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why Doesn\u2019t God Always\u00a0Heal? &nbsp; We acknowledge God has all power and can heal, but \u2026 One of my favorite accounts in the life of Jesus occurs in Mark 5. Jairus came to Jesus on behalf of his sick daughter, and Jesus willingly went with the man. On the way, though, they are slowed downContinue reading &rarr;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}