Recently I had a jarring experience that left me utterly dumfounded. It did more than that for it left me somewhat perplexed at the ambivalent attitude we have towards some aspects of God's dealing with us, especially here as it relates to healing.
Let me explain.
I was sitting in my lounge in a comfortable, well padded, and to be honest my favourite settee reading a book. I was enormously at peace for I love reading and the atmosphere was most congenial. Next door on my left my neighbour's children were joyfully frolicking and just outside my windows the humming birds and sparrows were delightfully flitting through the pomegranate trees. Ahead of me the big French doors, fully glassed, were letting in abundant soft sunshine and the adjacent
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But hang on a moment sir, there is more to tell.
I remembered what happened to Paul when he approached God three times asking for healing for his ailment (almost certainly an eye-problem) and God did not heal him and told him, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9) Do I take it then that we must put up with all our aches and pains and trust that God's grace is sufficient for us?
Absolutely not.
God's grace is sufficient for us in ALL SITUATIONS whether we are pain-free or not. The reason why healing escapes us sometimes is that we are ambivalent about miraculous healing and this ambivalence means that we are asking for the healing but not expecting it will happen although we have faith that it COULD happen.
We are generally double-minded about miraculous healing because we have the undesirable tendency to see pain, suffering and sickness in totally negative and pejorative terms but is that the only way to see them? Absolutely not.
Take my bad back which plays up every now and again.
Before we married I told my wife that I have a bad back so she knows I am cautious about lifting things especially if I have to bend down for
Whenever I learned to trust and turn to God, I found His comfort to satisfy my soul. Almost two years ago, one of my best friends became extremely ill and had to leave home and go to a treatment clinic. (For her privacy, I will not say the illness). She had to immediately leave for she was due to die in two weeks if she did not find help. Whenever she told me the news, my whole world flipped upside down. My life had been pretty okay before this, just a few ups and downs. This was the first major trial in my life and I was not prepared. Of course, I prayed for her but I did not grasp the fact that God was going to save her. I was extremely emotionally unstable and I tried to fix myself on my own. This never worked, I may have had temporarily relief but the fear came back. One day I finally gave up trying to fix myself and turned to God. I asked Him to forgive me for not turning to Him first and I allowed him to fix me. I placed my trust in him and ran to him for comfort. Even when it was difficult, I knew I had to trust in Him. Once I placed my faith in Him, my comfort came. I had faith that He would heal her and she will not
During the summer, I heard of a story that seemed very controversial and I demanded to learn more of the subject. The story covered by nearly all NEWS stations ridiculed the fact that parents are leaning towards faith-healing instead of medicine when their children are. Typically this situation becomes aware when a parent believing in faith-healing takes their practice too far and the children suffer dire consequences. An article that demonstrates the importance of change and awareness of faith healing is of two parents who are found guilty of murder after their second child dies from pneumonia because they prayed and seek people who claimed to have healing powers through Christ.
Healing is a relative term. Healing is also a universal term. The question is how these two fundamental parts of human existence related. The key is found in healing hospitals. Now to many, a healing hospital sounds redundant. However, a healing hospital refers not only physical healing, but also an all-around healing environment. This encompassing theory of a healing hospital provides care for physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological needs for all patients. Instead of discrimination and rejection of religion and faith, it uses these cornerstones of people’s worldview to reinforce their healing process. This is a very biblical aspect of care
Relying exclusively on faith healing and avoiding or delaying conventional treatment for a serious illness like cancer may have serious consequences. Death, disability or other unpleasant outcomes have occurred when faith healing was selected instead of conventional care for serious injuries or illnesses.
Throughout time, mankind has persistently been seeking ways to maintain their health and to cure those that had not been so fortunate in that task. Just about everything has been experimented with as a cure for some type of illness; whether physical, spiritual or mental. There has always been evidence of spiritual healing and it will continue to be an important part of any healing process, large or small.
It is imperative to note that many patients believe that their illness is a form of punishment from God perhaps because of a past sin or an unfulfilled promise. When this happens, they lose hope and begin to turn alienate themselves in lieu of seeking the face of God.
48) "we never got the habit of happiness as others know it. It was always as if
Religion and spirituality is a major essential part of one’s’ health. They have included things such as prayer in healing, counseling, and the use of meditation. Spiritual issues make a difference in an individual’s experience of illness and health. With spirituality, the health care providers can learn to support the values for the art of healing. The health care provider must have respect for their patient’s religion. (Larry Dossey. Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine. Harper Collins, San Francisco. 1993.)
It is perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions of all time: if there are gods who have control over humans’ lives, why do they allow good followers to suffer? How can there be any justice in that kind of world? Philosophers and thinkers like Seneca and authors of the Bible have debated and written about these questions since ancient times. Perhaps because hardships affect every person, many people continue to debate the same topics today. Seneca writes extensively about the topic of suffering in his essay “On Providence,” which is contained in The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca. Likewise, Paul writes about how to face hardships in his letters to the Romans and the Corinthians, and the book of Job in the Old Testament contains more thoughts and wisdom on the subject. Although the reasons that they provide for why gods allow humans to suffer differ, Seneca and writers in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible agree that in all cases hardships are beneficial to those who suffer.
The inception of the “Healing Hospital” is not new. Healing hospitals in various forms have been around throughout history. As hospitals were slowly taken over by religious orders they became more holistic concentrating on all aspects of healing including physical, mental, and spiritual. Instead of focusing on the patient as a carrier of disease and death they began to look at them as a person that has certain fundamental needs for existence. One of these needs as fore mentioned is spirituality. Spirituality simply defined “is that which relates to or affects the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. Spirituality touches that part of you that is not dependent on material things or physical comforts” (Living Words of Wisdom, n.d.)
At a certain point during a person’s illness, a doctor will say that there is just no more that can be done. Modern medicine, scientific technology, and healing techniques have done all they can, but tragically, the fate of the person looks grim, and death is rapidly approaching. It is then that people will hope for a miracle. Terri McFaddin, a minister, expresses the feelings of those seriously ill when saying that "We are living in desperate times where people are going to believe in things they can’t see because they can’t trust the things they can see. Miracles happen where natural resources end. One will walk into the realm of miracles when all natural resources have been exhausted." 4 When scientific reasoning and human knowledge have failed people and no cure can be found, that is when people will turn to their faith and hope for a miracle. They grip hope that is beyond reason and logic.5 Praise and worship leader Ron Kenoly says that more people are realizing that to be helped with the great problems they face, they need to go beyond the limits of reason and the abilities of man.6 Today the largest percentages of Americans in a decade profess the existence of God and miracles, according to a poll commissioned by the Pew Research Center.
To make a long story short, eighteen months ago my husband suffered a broken neck due to a swimming accident. We as a family had been in debate over our family’s relationship with God. As we discovered, ones religion is often decided during the darkest times of our lives. It was at that time we discovered that there was something more to life than money, possessions, or “facts”. The specialists couldn’t explain what had saved Shane’s life. Their science failed them. Luckily, the neurologist was a Christian, and her only explanation was God wasn’t finished with him yet.
According to Sharpe (2015), “when truly deep suffering comes into their lives, Christians will often pray to God for healing or rescue” (para. 2). Based on this fundamental belief in the Christian worldview, it is imperative that every human encounter suffering as this brings a person closer in their relationship with God. The Christian worldview holds a belief that God has a purpose for everything that happens in a person’s life, whether it is joy and happiness, pain and suffering, and life and death. This can be seen throughout the Bible such as “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11, New International Version), and in Ecclesiastes 3 “A Time for Everything.” These core Christian beliefs should cause a person to look past the suffering that he or she is facing, and try to see what kind of positives can come from the current suffering that a person is
It is my belief as we are worshipping God healing is taking place in our very midst - healing of spirit, soul and body.
In Mark Jesus healed many people with various ailments such as evil spirit possession, hemorrhaging, healing the deaf, the blind and epilepsy. The healings that Jesus conducted in Mark show that God’s love and mercy is everlasting. Also the power of faith and will power that the people had who were in need of the healing was very visible. Sometimes we go through situations and forget that God never left our sides during tribulations and His son Christ is within us no matter what. Also displayed in Mark through the stories of Jesus healing is the fact that God always has the final say so or judgment. Since God has the final say we should not worry or be too sadden by obstacles that we face. I truly believe that God will not give us more then we can handle and through obstacles we find our strength and courage to keep fighting.