Trust God with the things we don’t understand.
I believe in healing. Yet sometimes people aren’t healed.
My daughter was born with birth defects. I prayed and believed God for a miracle. I sat in the waiting room of the hospital praying and believing for supernatural healing. But, five hours later, as I propped her bloodstained cast on a pillow, I looked into the eyes of my six-month-old baby girl, eyes dulled by pain and confused by an experience she couldn’t understand.
Why didn’t God heal her? She’s been through two surgeries and, apart from God’s intervention, may need more later in life.
How do we deal with that?
Let me explain that I’m not really writing about healing. I’m writing about doubt, confusion and struggles. I’m writing about not understanding God.
Some people will look at my story and say, “God doesn’t heal supernaturally any more.” Others will say, “It just wasn’t God’s will.” Others will say, “You didn’t have enough faith,” or “There was sin in your life.”
None of these explanations satisfy me. I believe God still cares about people who suffer. The Jesus who went around healing people hasn’t changed—He still wants to heal, and He remains perfectly capable of healing. And just because someone doesn’t get healed doesn’t mean that they are at fault. Maybe they did everything right. And, yet, the healing didn’t come.
So where does that leave me? It leaves me with a question that I’m not smart enough to answer.
Here’s the point: If we are honest, and if we live long enough, we will come to questions that we can’t answer. What does that mean? It means that God trusts us enough to trust Him with things we don’t understand. And there is a quietness that comes when we release the reins and let God be God.
Today’s verses:
When Trophimus, my traveling companion, became ill, I left him in the city of Miletus. 2 Timothy 4:20 The Easy Bible
I get thrown in jail just because I love Jesus and tell my world about Him. Does that embarrass me? No way! I know the God whom I trust. I know that He will guard everything I’ve trusted to Him, and it will all turn out well in the end. 2 Timothy 1:12 The Easy Bible
Remember, you are designed to make a difference!
Dwight
Photo credit: Adapted from a photo by Christian Scheja, Flickr, Creative Commons License