God Does NOT Heal All - CHRISTIAN Discussion

[Josiah]

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Jesus performed at least 33 miracles (as recorded in God's inscripturated word - with allusions to MANY more). Many of them are quite interesting.

There are MANY verses that direct us to God's physical healing of disease, often with Gospel promises (some absolute).

We've all known MANY (including ourselves) who prayed for healing - and were healed (perhaps even miraciously). But we've all known some who prayed for healing and were not (my very, very beloved grandfather..... I still grieve).

Scripture suggests Jesus did not heal everyone... Certainly not all are healed now, not even Christians.

And it seems all the miracles of healing (and rising from the dead) were temporary - they soon got sick and/or died anyway.


+++++++++++++++


"Answers" I've heard/read seem to fall into 3 categories (with many variations in each)....


1. God's Soverignty. Our Reformed brothers and sisters quickly go to this. God is God, His ways are not our ways and often are beyond our knowledge and need to know. God is true and faithful - but He does this according to His will. God is gloried by our sickness and death - but don't dismay, the Christian is received into glory. It's about God's glory.

2. Our Unworthiness. Our "Evangelical" and Catholic brothers and sisters often go to this. OUR unworthiness sadly "trumps" God's Gospel. There is a lack of faith on our part that renders God impotent (or simply unwilling or simply means we can't apprehend the healing). And/or there is some unrepentant (and perhaps persistent) sin that renders God impotent or simply means we are lack the required level of merit for the healing. It's our fault.

3. Mystery of the Cross. Our Lutheran (and sometimes Orthodox) brothers and sisters often go here. We simply do not know. God is always faithful.... and our unworthiness 0r sinfulness doesn't render Him impotent (since ALL are unworthy, ALL are sinful), God's mercy is unconditional. We simply cannot answer the question.... there may be aspects to all this unknown to us. It's mystery. My Lutheran pastor speaks of "God healing in heaven rather than on Earth" which I admit does SEEM like a "cop out" but is it?


#1 and #3 are similar, of course - but #1 looks to God's power and glory, # 3 to His heart. Additionally, there appears to be in Scripture the thought at sickness (like all affliction) can be a good thing or at least result in some good (again, Paul's thorn comes to mind) and both #1 and #3 note that - but is that side-stepping the issue?



YOUR thoughts?



Pax Christi



- Josiah

 

[Rens]

Church is not mature in unity like Him yet. When it's someone's time you can have all the faith of the world, but the person will go. Smith Wigglesworth raised his wife from the dead the second time on his faith, but he had to let her go. It was her time.

 

[psalms 91]

Yes, God is not slack concerning His promises but yes we all die and move on to a better place

 

[tango]

It often seems that lots of strawmen get thrown up in any discussion like this. Some suggest that rejecting the idea that God always heals means the person believes God never heals, but that's logically untrue.

To counter the claim that "God always heals" we only need one example when God did not heal. Likewise to counter the claim that "God never heals" we only need one example when God did heal. If we reject "God always heals" we are saying either "God sometimes heals" or "God never heals".

As for why God sometimes heals and sometimes doesn't heal, I suspect a lot of the time we just have to accept that God gets to decide and we get to go along with whatever God decides. I think here, too, there's a lot of unhelpful talk thrown around. Sometimes people effectively blame the person who wasn't healed (whether for lacking faith or for having hidden sin in their life, either way it doesn't help the person who wasn't healed). Sometimes there's talk of "losing our healing" as if God were fickle enough to perform a miracle only to withdraw it a couple of days later because we failed to jump through some vaguely defined hoop or another or to teach us a lesson. That also seems unhelpful.

Although the Bible doesn't explicitly state it, it seems reasonable to assume that the people healed by Jesus went on to die at a later time. This would appear reasonable to assume simply because it's the normal course of events and Scripture doesn't tell us that anything unusual happened, and therefore all we can sensibly assume is that life took its normal course. So the miracle served a purpose in that it validated that Jesus was who he said he was and that he had a message worth listening to, but in the longer term all it did was delayed someone's death. (Likewise with people like Lazarus and the centurion's daughter we can only assume that despite being raised from the dead they went on to die at some unspecified future time.)

I suspect most people, given the choice, would enjoy perfect health and then die peacefully in their sleep at a ripe old age. But when Jesus said we would have to take up our cross and follow him it's remarkable to see how that somehow gets distorted into the idea that we'll enjoy perfect health, financial prosperity and the world as our oyster. Sometimes comparing how the members of the early church rejoiced at being counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the gospel after being beaten with sticks, to how members of the current church seek legal redress when - horror - they are required to make a cake for a couple whose relationship they disapprove of, is simultaneously challenging and embarrassing.

 

[Alithis]

The question must be .. Is it Gods will to heal.
The answer is Yes.
Therefore does he always do so ?
The answer is yes.

Therfore wht are not all healed?
Jesus told us to do it in his name .
So why are not all i pray for healed..many are.
Because of 1 unbelief
2 lack of faith.
God id consistant. God is life ,God Always heals.
We however do not always obey God.by doing what he told US to do.
We do not obey because we do not believe. So we do not see the promise nor enter into it ..because of unbelief.

 

[Josiah]

The question must be .. Is it Gods will to heal.
The answer is Yes.
Therefore does he always do so ?
The answer is yes.

Therfore wht are not all healed?

So, does God always heal or doesn't He?

Because of 1 unbelief
2 lack of faith.

So, my agnostic coworker has more faith in Christ and less sin than my grandfather who was not healed but died? Can you document that? So, those who check out of the hospital healed ergo are believers and saints..... but those who die are unbelievers and sinners? Can you document that?







.

 

[Alithis]

So, does God always heal or doesn't He?





So, my agnostic coworker has more faith in Christ and less sin than my grandfather who was not healed but died? Can you document that? So, those who check out of the hospital healed ergo are believers and saints..... but those who die are unbelievers and sinners? Can you document that?







.

god IS true
he is life
his word became flesh
by his stripes we were healed ..its a a done deal .

he told US to go heal the sick in his name .

your perpetuating unbelief

In your religious world
you can't be free of sin
and now you cant be healed ???

i think i will continue to follow the lord jesus i beleive in .. the one that saves delivers and heals . the one you beleive in doesnt seem to be able to do much at all

 

[Josiah]

he told US to go heal the sick in his name .

Ok. You posted that God always heals but that He doesn't. Which is it?

you can't be free of sin
and now you cant be healed ???

So only sinless people are healed? So all who are healed are thus sinless and make Scripture wrong when it says that NO ONE is sinless, no, not even one?




.

i think i will continue to follow the lord jesus i beleive in .. the one that saves delivers and heals . the one you beleive in doesnt seem to be able to do much at all[/QUOTE]

 

[Krissy Cakes]

He will heal when it is HIS time. I'm not healed physically or mentally. But am I mad? No. Frustrated? Yes but cause its a daily struggle.

 

[Josiah]

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Some of MY thoughts......



Is sickness God’s desire, His will?

It’s not easy an easy question. His PRIMARY (unconditional) will is clearly that we have life – physical and spiritual. We can see that from the Garden where Adam and Eve had no sickness, no aging, no death. We can see that from the many Scriptures that speak of God desiring health for us and the great lengths He went to secure eternal life for us, we can see that from the many miracles of healing in the Bible (at least 33 specific cases recorded in the four Gospels by Jesus). His SECONDARY (conditional) will is …. complex. Clearly sickness and death happen so at least God permits it. As we’ll see, He may even use it for His purposes in this fallen world.


Don’t take it personally!


Decay, sickness, death (indeed, all suffering) are aspects of “the Fall” and impact all Creation (even plants and animals). Sickness, decay, death are the result of sin (in the sense that they are a part of the Fallenness of Creation), but not necessarily the result of any specific sin by any specific person.

John 9:2-3 ____________________________________________________________________

Jeremiah 14:1-3 _______________________________________________________________

Romans 8:38-39 _______________________________________________________________

Romans 8:20-22 _______________________________________________________________


God cares for the sick and dying….

Deuteronomy 31:6 _________________________________________________________________

Psalm 23:4-6 _____________________________________________________________________.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ________________________________________________________________

Philippians 4:6-7 __________________________________________________________________

1 Peter 5:7 _______________________________________________________________________

Romans 8:38-39 __________________________________________________________________

1 Peter 1:3 ______________________________________________________________________


God heals

Psalm 34:19 _____________________________________________________________________

Psalm 43:3 ______________________________________________________________________

Psalm 104:2-4 ___________________________________________________________________

Matthew 8:5-7 ___________________________________________________________________

Matthew 12:15 ___________________________________________________________________

Matthew 14:14 ___________________________________________________________________

Luke 8:49-56 ____________________________________________________________________


The role of faith and prayer

Mark 5:34 ______________________________________________________________________

Luke 8:48 ______________________________________________________________________

James 5:15 _____________________________________________________________________

Matthew 7:7-11 __________________________________________________________________


God may heal unbelievers, too

Any M.D. or hospital can confirm that non-Christians are often healed, too – so experience confirms that God’s healing mercy is not limited to His believing children.

Matthew 5:43-47 ________________________________________________________________
God instructs us to love our enemies and do well to them, can He do less than He demands of us? God’s love is unconditional…..

Mark 6:5-6 _____________________________________________________________________

Acts 10:38 _____________________________________________________________________



God may heal us indirectly/mediately - through means or through others

John 9:1-7 ______________________________________________________________________
Might He also use medication, surgery, etc.? Is it still His miracle?

Acts 28:8 _______________________________________________________________________


God does not always heal (even great believers; at least not this side of heaven)
Indeed, ultimately everyone dies (sorry; it’s just true)

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 ____________________________________________________________


God may not heal but USE our sickness for good (of us and/or others)
He may heal us and use THAT for our good, too!

2 Corinthians 12:6-10 ____________________________________________________________

Romans 5:1-5 _________________________________________________________________

2 Corinthians 1:8-11 ____________________________________________________________

Romans 8:28 __________________________________________________________________


Why does God sometimes heal and sometimes not?
Of course, God EVENTUALLY heals us in heaven; healing DOES come….in His time.

Scripture does not answer this question. “Answers” fall into 3 categories:

1. God's Soverignty. Our Reformed brothers and sisters quickly go to this. God is God, His ways are not our ways and often are beyond our knowledge and need to know. God is true and faithful - but He does this according to His will. God is gloried by our healing but also by our sickness and death. It's about God's glory.

2. Our Unworthiness. Our "Evangelical" and Catholic brothers and sisters often go to this. OUR unworthiness sadly "trumps" God's Gospel. There is a lack of faith on our part that renders God impotent (or simply unwilling or simply means we can't apprehend the healing). And/or there is some unrepentant (and perhaps persistent) sin that renders God impotent or simply means we are lack the required level of merit for the healing. It's our fault.

3. Mystery of the Cross. Lutheran and Orthodox brothers and sisters often go here. We simply do not know. God is always faithful.... and our unworthiness or sinfulness doesn't render Him impotent (since ALL are unworthy, ALL are sinful), God's mercy is unconditional. His heart is working here – but in ways we cannot always “see.” We simply cannot answer the question.... there likely are aspects to all this unknown to us but fully known to God. It's mystery. #3 is very similar to #1 but while the first stresses God’s sovereignty and glory, # 3 stresses God’s heart.



My half cent (My Bible Study for my youth class this Sunday)



Pax Christi



- Josiah

 

[Alithis]

does GOD heal
yes

does god save
yes

are all saved ? no
is that Gods fault / ditto..

i didn't answer you former post becaseu you took what i said ..turned it to another meaning and misrepresented it .

is healing conditional ? yes .. is depends on whether one has the faith to heal another in Jesus name .
and that never going to happen when you teach or even hint that god is unfaithful to the stripes laid on the back of Jesus .
you dont get it both ways . Gods word is true and he is faithful to it . dont build a theology based on your experience .. your experience can change .
build it on the word of god who changes Not .

 

[tango]

The question must be .. Is it Gods will to heal.
The answer is Yes.
Therefore does he always do so ?
The answer is yes.

On what basis do you assume it is always God's will to heal? On what basis do you assume God always heals, when you go on to ask why some are not healed?

Therfore wht are not all healed?
Jesus told us to do it in his name .
So why are not all i pray for healed..many are.
Because of 1 unbelief
2 lack of faith.

Some most certainly are. But if you want to claim that unbelief or a lack of faith is to blame for people not being healed all you're doing is saying that the ones who aren't healed only have themselves to blame. I'm sure that my friend's wife, who has been prayed for more times than I care to count over the decade or so I've known her, and who has gone from being perfectly able-bodied to being confined to a wheelchair thanks to multiple sclerosis, would be thrilled to know that it's her own fault she's in the wheelchair. I'm sure my friend, her husband and carer, would be thrilled to know that it's her fault too.

Since we all have to die sooner or later why is it such a stretch to understand that God isn't going to heal every minor sickness we experience? It would create an absurd world if people enjoyed perfect health until their allotted time, at which point they simply dropped dead without warning. When my mother died I would have done just about anything to ease her pain but I'm thankful I got the chance to say goodbye to her and to be there with her when she passed.

God id consistant. God is life ,God Always heals.

God always heals, except when he doesn't. I think if you want to claim it's always God's will to heal you need to come up with something a little better than "lack of belief" to explain those who aren't healed.

We however do not always obey God.by doing what he told US to do.
We do not obey because we do not believe. So we do not see the promise nor enter into it ..because of unbelief.

Which promise is that? I don't see a promise of perfect health anywhere in Scripture. On the contrary, I see Jesus as the man who said how "foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head", who said the world would hate us and persecute us, who told us to take up our cross and follow him, and so on. I don't see him promising perfect health anywhere.

 

[tango]

god IS true
he is life
his word became flesh
by his stripes we were healed ..its a a done deal .

This is an extremely narrow interpretation of Is 53:5 that simply doesn't represent the reality in which we live. You might as well pluck Psalm 103:3 out of context as well.

he told US to go heal the sick in his name .

So why is there a healthcare system in the country at all? Why do people go to hospital - if it were as simple as you make out people could simply go to church instead and be healed. It would be a lot cheaper than worrying about insurance premiums, deductibles, copays and the general annoyance, discomfort and outright pain of conventional medical treatment. And think how much money the church could make from simply requesting a donation of, say, $100 for every healing?

your perpetuating unbelief

Not at all, questioning whether God always heals is merely attempting to reconcile reality to Scripture. If the two contradict we need to consider whether we've misunderstood reality or misunderstood Scripture. If the best form of reconciliation between the two is "you lack faith" something is probably wrong.

In your religious world
you can't be free of sin
and now you cant be healed ???

i think i will continue to follow the lord jesus i beleive in .. the one that saves delivers and heals . the one you beleive in doesnt seem to be able to do much at all

The Jesus I believe in saves, delivers and heals. He just does it according to his plan rather than according to my plan. If he did it according to my desire then I would be in charge and Jesus would be the follower. Last I checked it doesn't work that way.

 

[Rens]

On what basis do you assume it is always God's will to heal? On what basis do you assume God always heals, when you go on to ask why some are not healed?



Some most certainly are. But if you want to claim that unbelief or a lack of faith is to blame for people not being healed all you're doing is saying that the ones who aren't healed only have themselves to blame. I'm sure that my friend's wife, who has been prayed for more times than I care to count over the decade or so I've known her, and who has gone from being perfectly able-bodied to being confined to a wheelchair thanks to multiple sclerosis, would be thrilled to know that it's her own fault she's in the wheelchair. I'm sure my friend, her husband and carer, would be thrilled to know that it's her fault too.

Since we all have to die sooner or later why is it such a stretch to understand that God isn't going to heal every minor sickness we experience? It would create an absurd world if people enjoyed perfect health until their allotted time, at which point they simply dropped dead without warning. When my mother died I would have done just about anything to ease her pain but I'm thankful I got the chance to say goodbye to her and to be there with her when she passed.



God always heals, except when he doesn't. I think if you want to claim it's always God's will to heal you need to come up with something a little better than "lack of belief" to explain those who aren't healed.



Which promise is that? I don't see a promise of perfect health anywhere in Scripture. On the contrary, I see Jesus as the man who said how "foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head", who said the world would hate us and persecute us, who told us to take up our cross and follow him, and so on. I don't see him promising perfect health anywhere.

We would do the same works. By His stripes we are healed.
Jesus never said no to someone. He healed all who believed.
I shouldn't lay the guilt on the not healed person though. It can be true, but the only ones Jesus told had unbelief were His own disciples. They couldn't heal a boy and asked Him why. He said because of your unbelief. Oh faithless generation. He didn't say that to the boy or the father who came for help. It has become an easy excuse when someone asks the elders in church to pray for them when they're sick like the Bible says and they shall recover, but then it doesn't work and it's easier to blame the sick person than yourself. In general the church just needs revival and all believers should do the works of Jesus.
Why doesn't the girlfriend of my boss who lost her arm have a new arm?
Because I have unbelief. Simple as that. If I hadn't I would just walk up to him, go home with them and pray and ploop a new arm. God doesn't always ask much faith from the ones prayed for. Lord I believe. Help my unbelief! and He healed his son. Sometimes He couldn't do anything because of their unbelief though, but they were Jews who didn't believe He was the Messiah and now people are way too quick to condemn someone's unbelief. Better look at yourself. I had unbelief, so others prayed too and I built my faith for a year with texts about healing and got healed eventually. I saw people die though too who were first miraculously healed and then it came back. One guy, I really wonder if he would still be saved if he had been healed. He was an atheist, but he got saved. Then we christians behaved like evil monsters. I'm glad for him he went to heaven in time, so he couldn't take offense and fall back. God doesn't always want to heal. When He has appointed it's someone's time to go to heaven you can maybe with your faith raise them from the dead, but you will have to let them go.

In general God always wants to heal, except when He doesn't. Did she not have enough faith?

https://gracefortheroad.com/2013/02/25/clare/

 

[Alithis]

[MENTION=62]tango[/MENTION] . in regard to whether it is Gods will to heal .it appears, [MENTION=181]Messy[/MENTION] ,has replied well. I would have said much the same. Bar one point.
He did not do much healing in his home town ..not because he couldnt. But because due to thier unbelief they did not come to him to be healed. But every single one that did come- he healed.

--there is no referemce what ever of the lord ever turning any one away when theycame for healing. So its fair to reverse the question. As such. What scripture would anyone base the assumption that God does not heal ?

 

[Rens]

[MENTION=62]tango[/MENTION] . in regard to whether it is Gods will to heal .it appears, [MENTION=181]Messy[/MENTION] ,has replied well. I would have said much the same. Bar one point.
He did not do much healing in his home town ..not because he couldnt. But because due to thier unbelief they did not come to him to be healed. But every single one that did come- he healed.

--there is no referemce what ever of the lord ever turning any one away when theycame for healing. So its fair to reverse the question. As such. What scripture would anyone base the assumption that God does not heal ?

I don't think there is one since His Name is Jehovah Rapha, only one I can think of is: his years will be 120 from Genesis. If that means sickness if it's someone's time, dunno, sort of. Physical death is not done away yet. God can keep you healthy when you're 120, but then what? Somehow the body has to stop functioning.

 

[Josiah]

Jesus never said no to someone. He healed all who believed.

My grandfather died from cancer.... in spite of his GREAT, GREAT faith and MANY, MANY prayers. IMO, Jesus said 'no' (at least to healing this side of heaven); He did NOT heal all who believe. I offer my grandfather as just one of billions and billions of examples.

What about all those approx. 5 billion people who are NOT believers but who are often healed? LOTS of people are cured of cancer - and most aren't Christians. My grandfather was not healed - and he was a Christian.

They couldn't heal a boy and asked Him why. He said because of your unbelief.

?

In general God always wants to heal, except when He doesn't.

Hum.

Did she not have enough faith?

Faith the size of mustard seeds moves mountains.

Jesus calls us to have faith like a baby.

It's not the QUANTITY of faith but the OBJECT of faith, IMO. But then I have no evidence - biblical or otherwise - that healing comes only to Christians of enormous, gigantic faith (or even faith..... at all).




Thank you.


My half cent.


- Josiah

 

[tango]

[MENTION=62]tango[/MENTION] . in regard to whether it is Gods will to heal .it appears, [MENTION=181]Messy[/MENTION] ,has replied well. I would have said much the same. Bar one point.
He did not do much healing in his home town ..not because he couldnt. But because due to thier unbelief they did not come to him to be healed. But every single one that did come- he healed.

--there is no referemce what ever of the lord ever turning any one away when theycame for healing. So its fair to reverse the question. As such. What scripture would anyone base the assumption that God does not heal ?

Firstly, I never said God does not heal. My stance is that God does not always heal. The two are very significantly different.

As to why God might not heal, how about "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"? (2Co 12:9) - if Paul could boast in his infirmities (the ones that obviously hadn't been healed), maybe we could too.

Here's the thing. We clearly have a conflict between the "healing in the atonement" teaching (that God always heals) and life around us that makes it very clear God does not always heal. One way or another things have to resolve. Either Scripture is wrong, or our interpretation is wrong, or there's some other reason why God isn't healing in ways we might expect. To resolve the conflict we need to figure out whether there are other ways the text can be interpreted (without butchering the context, or twisting things to suit our preferred interpretation) or if there's something about the church today that hinders things (e.g. if my life is riddled with unconfessed sin I shouldn't be surprised if God doesn't work powerfully through me)

There's one line of thought out there that essentially goes along the lines of "sickness doesn't exist in heaven and therefore has no place on earth", which sounds very appealing but this argument collapses when drawn out even a little. There's no death in heaven either but death clearly does exist on earth, not least because God decreed it would be so after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Until the new heaven and the new earth are with us we will continue to experience death, sorrow and pain so unless we want to say we will achieve blissful immortality this side of heaven it seems odd to pull sickness out of the mix in isolation.

A verse often used by people who support the "God always heals" teaching is Ps 103:3. But looking at the overall context of this verse doesn't support the meaning that so many people assign to it, even though on the face of it the meaning appears obvious.

David was righteous aside from his one issue with Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite (and 1Ki 15:5 puts this in black and white), so the only recorded iniquity he committed related to Uriah. God had forgiven him following his repentance after being challenged by Nathan, but the child Bathsheba bore for him died. Looking at 2Sa 12 we see David told that the Lord had put away his sin and he would not die, and on hearing his child would die David pleaded with God and fasted for a week but the child still died. Then when the child died David washed, anointed himself, and worshiped God on the basis that while the child lived he fasted and wept because God may have saved the child but now the child was dead he couldn't be brought back. If David knew that God forgave all his sins he must have written the psalm after the incident with Uriah, in which case he would also have known that God did not heal all our diseases in the physical world because he had watched his son die.

From that it seems more likely that "God who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases" refers to healing in the form of being given a perfected body in the afterlife rather than necessarily physical healing in this life, given that David's son quite demonstrably wasn't healed of his diseases in this life. This ties in with Romans 8:23 referring to how we are "eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body" and the future promise of a new heaven and new earth where there is no more sickness, no more death, no more sorrow, no more pain. I'm still seeing this as representing a promise of future perfection rather than any guarantee of physical healing in this life, which also ties in with what Jesus said about how we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.

Rolling forward to New Testament times and it's clear that Jesus healed a lot of people but even there it seems presumptuous to assume that sickness and infirmity will always be healed. I realise there are a few conflicting interpretations of just what Paul was referring to as the "thorn in the flesh" given to him but even putting that one aside we see him telling Timothy to "use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities" (1Ti 5:23, NKJV) so it seems even back in the days of the early church there were people who weren't healed of their infirmities.

One of the books I've been reading lately (I forget which one offhand, there have been a few) raised the question whether we would be willing to give up everything in this world to follow Jesus if all we got out of the arrangement was Jesus Christ and nothing more. It's something I find very challenging - the question of whether I'd give up worldly wealth, my health, my physical well-being, whatever social and financial status I may have, all in exchange for the kingdom of heaven. But that seems to be just what Jesus is describing when he used the analogies of the "pearl of great price" and the "treasure in the field" that caused the man to sell all that he had to acquire it. What Jesus said about "if your eye causes you to sin" seems to reinforce this, that it's better to be physically imperfect and get into heaven than be physically intact but sinful. Where is the cost in plucking out our eye or cutting off our hand, if we are all but guaranteed a replacement just by asking for it? What use is a healthy body if our spirit is dull?

I often wonder whether I could follow in the footsteps of Job and honestly say "Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return... blessed be the name of the Lord". But I fear if we focus too much on the "what's in it for me" question when it comes to following Jesus we end up following on our terms rather than His, and become customers rather than disciples. The teaching that as Christians we are assured perfect health flies in the face of "take up your cross and follow me" and turns our Christian walk into a list of things we assume we're going to get. What we're going to get is a place in heaven and no guarantees whether we'll be rich or poor, sick or healthy, popular or despised, in this world. We must be ready to give up all that we have in this world for the sake of the cross, whether that relates to financial prosperity, social status, good health, whatever. If there's anything we have that we would not be willing to leave behind if Jesus called us away from it, we aren't following Jesus.

 

[Lamb]

When we are resurrected and given our new bodies, we're healed.

 

[Josiah]

When we are resurrected and given our new bodies, we're healed.

... and I think that's good to keep in mind. IN HIS TIME, there IS healing. It's just that it may happen in heaven. Now, I say this as a young, very healthy (and handsome) person but I think there IS comfort and gospel in that, after all, ALL "healings" this side of heaven are temporary (we all eventually die anyway), the ultimate miracle of heaven happens "on the other side." God MAY give us a tiny bit of extra time (and extra health) on this side .... but He may not, welcoming us into heaven (and perfect, permanent healing) instead?


Thanks, Lamm


Pax


- Josiah