Last Sunday at LifeSpring we talked about how progress is a process, and in the process (see what I did there? Funny? Not really. Moving on…) we read this passage:
“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well…- James 5:14-15a (NIV)
We went a little more into detail of some of the topics raised in that passage in Sunday’s message, but we didn’t answer a question that is naturally raised by this passage:
If God commands us to pray for the sick, and they are prayed for…then why is it that sometimes they are not healed?
That’s a very valid question- and it’s one that we need to navigate through because this is a question all of us are going to have at some point in our lives if we have not had it already.
Perhaps you are dealing with a medical issue that you’ve had for even years, you’ve prayed for it to go away, you’ve had others pray for it to be healed…and yet you still are dealing with it.
Maybe you had a loved one get cancer, and you prayed as hard as you could for their healing…and they still died.
Maybe someone had a tragic accident, like my friend whose wife was shot during a home break-in, and people prayed as hard as they could for healing…and yet she passed.
If God tells us to pray for the sick and they will be healed…then why is it that sometimes they are not?
There are six things we need to keep in mind when we pray for other people – or ourselves- when we face sickness:
#1- We live in a world wrecked by sin.
Creation itself was damaged by sin (Genesis 3:17-18). That means our bodies are not perfect and are susceptible to sickness. It’s important to remember that, because there are some strands of theology that believe sickness is always an indication of some sort of sin in your life. While it’s true that sometimes our pain is self-inflicted, there are other times- in fact, many and I would daresay most times- that, when we get sick or face a medical trauma of some kind, it is simply the result of us living in a broken world.
#2- We are not free from the consequences of the choices that we make.
Sickness and disease are not always the result of sin. However, sickness can be the result of choices that we have made. For instance, if you decide to eat McDonald’s every day, and if you decide to finish it off with an extra-large milkshake and then sit in the La-Z-Boy at home…and you end up with heart issues…then that’s on you. If you smoke a pack-a-day and you end up with lung cancer, then that’s the natural consequence of smoking. If you are a chronic alcoholic and end up with liver disease, then you can probably guess why.
We should not think God is obligated to bail us out of the consequences that we reap due to poor decisions that we have made.
That said…
#3- God can and does still heal!
It is wrong to argue that “God just doesn’t heal people anymore.” That line of argument is not in the Bible without some serious interpretive gymnastics (and anytime you have to do interpretive gymnastics to make the Bible say what you want, that’s a problem). Nothing in the Bible says God stopped healing people when the Bible was completed. What it does say is that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8, NIV).
I just happen to believe that means if Jesus healed people when He walked on earth, then He can and still does heal people today. In fact, I would argue He heals more today than He did when He walked on earth. It just looks a little different.
When we think of Jesus healing, we think of the miraculous, there-is-no-medical explanation variety.
And that can happen.
But more often, Jesus heals through much more seemingly ordinary and “unspiritual” means. Like medicine, therapy, or surgery.
“But that doesn’t seem very spiritual,” you may argue.
Well…who gave people the idea to come up with open-heart surgery? Who put it in someone’s mind to begin developing the idea of physical therapy? Who gave some random person the idea to create glasses, contact lenses, hearing aids, false teeth?
People didn’t come up with these ideas. God put them in their minds.
Let’s not dismiss the work of God and wrongly/ arrogantly chalk it up to human ingenuity…just because it doesn’t look miraculous.
AND may I further submit that perhaps the reason you haven’t been healed is because you have refused to see a doctor?
Let’s not limit God by implying that He either doesn’t heal miraculously or that He must heal through miraculous means. He does heal- sometimes miraculously, but more often practically. Either way, healing is always attributable to God.
#5- When healing is slow in coming or does not come, remember that God always has a purpose in our pain.
One of the most encouraging things we learn from Job 1-2 and Luke 22:31 is that anything that happens to us- any trial, any pressure, any pain- must first pass through God’s hands. He must permit it to happen. That does not mean He causes it. But as the Sovereign Lord of the universe, nothing happens that He does not see coming- and allow.
That means if you are sick and not healed, or you saw a loved one not healed, the fact is God permitted it to happen.
Why?
I don’t always have an answer for that. I don’t have an answer for why my wife, Grace, and I suffered through a miscarriage last year (I talked about that some in this message). But I do know God permitted it- and I can rest in the fact that if He permitted it, then in some way, shape, or form, it is actually for my good and His glory.
Consider the story of Lazarus. This was a specific time in Scripture where Jesus was asked to heal a guy. And He declined. It produced pain and suffering.
But the end of the story is that Lazarus was raised from the dead and his sisters and the community saw Jesus in a way they never would have seen Him had Jesus simply came and healed Lazarus.
God always has a purpose for our pain, and we can rest assured that our pain will never be wasted, and the greatest way our pain is not wasted is when it points people to Jesus as we draw closer to Jesus in the midst of pain.
Which, by the way, I’ve learned that many times pain is the thing I need to move me to where Jesus wants me to be.
That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. That doesn’t mean there are not tears, mourning, and deep sorrow. But there is hope. Deep, real, unexplainable hope that knows that even when God permits something not good to happen, He will bring good out of it!
And the best good is that we have an incredible opportunity to be made more like Jesus when healing seems delayed- remember that we learn patience, perseverance, and are moved towards prayer in the process- not when things come immediately.
And the process is the point (see last Sunday’s message).
#6- For the follower of Jesus, healing is guaranteed– eventually.
Even if we were healed in this life, the fact remains that at some point, our bodies will falter and fail and we will die. No matter how healthy we are or how diligent we are to sanitize our hands, at some point, death is coming for all of us.
That means any healing that takes place right now doesn’t relieve us of the ultimate problem- death.
That’s why this next passage is one of the great hopes we have as Christians:
“‘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.”- Revelation 21:4 (NIV)
That means- for every single follower of Jesus- even if we are not healed in this life, and even if the sickness or medical trauma results in our physical death, our future in eternity with Jesus is a place where mourning, pain, sickness and death do not exist! It means that even when death in this life overtakes our physical body, we will remain alive – pain free- in eternity.
Not only that, when Jesus returns, He will resurrect our physical bodies and they will be made brand new, free from any sickness and disease (See 1 Corinthians 15 for Paul’s discussion on the resurrection of the body).
That should give us hope!