When Healing Is Elusive

Why do we have to deal with suffering? Why aren’t we miraculously healed when we pray for healing? Didn’t Jesus say, “Ask anything in my name and it shall be given you”? So, are we not healed due to a lack of faith or the right prayers?

What Jesus did say was: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) He also said “… and I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." (John 14:13-14) 

John later wrote, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (I John 5:14) And therein lies the key – asking in God’s will. But that begs the question… what is God’s will?

My late husband, Ed, and I traveled a long road with his disabilities. I would be lying to say he was always happy, sharing his great sense of humor. As so many others who share a strong faith in God can attest, facing any disability is no picnic. There are days when Ed’s blindness and constant unrelenting pain and dizziness took their toll on his emotions. I’d pray for my own patience when he despaired, felt depressed, alone, abandoned.

When every little thing is difficult to do, and ever-worsening neuropathy and gout became like a last straw, and when it seemed each day brought a new difficulty to deal with, he wondered why he was still here. He’d much rather wake up in his heavenly home, embraced in the arms of his Savior, relieved of the never-ending suffering. Yet, there is healing to be found in ways we often don’t readily recognize… and we thank God for bringing us through another day with His peace, guidance, and comfort, strengthening our faith and reliance on our heavenly Father, enabling us to be a witness to others around us.

We were told to pray and fast for healing, and trust that he would be healed. It sounds so easy, but healing did not come. We were told it was our fault that he was not healed because we did not pray right. Though I would never want to destroy a prayer of hope, the Bible does not teach that we can manipulate God into doing what we want just by saying the right words or having "enough" faith.

With long-term illness, disabilities, unrelenting pain and dizziness, Ed and I wondered what was wrong with us that healing had passed him by. Intimations by well-meaning friends that healing is simply for the asking has devastating effects, including guilt. While the “well” person can walk away emotionally and physically intact, how do we handle the seemingly raw deal we’d been dealt? 

Personally, I believe it takes a deeper faith to move forward without obvious answers and healing… because maybe there really is a purpose in our suffering. As we read in James, we are to “consider it pure joy…whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4). For “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial." (vs.12) Once upon a time I did not understand that concept and reacted poorly to adversity. Yet, even in that, I am not alone. 

Paralyzed from the neck down after a shallow dive soon after graduating from high school, Joni Eareckson Tada initially reacted negatively. She expected answers to prayers for miraculous healing. But healing never came. Disappointed, discouraged and despairing, she finally came to terms with accepting her disability. She has seen God work by changing her heart instead, and she praises God for the blessing her ministry has been in transforming the lives of others.

Despite his multitudinous losses of family and personal property, Job did not sin in his quest for answers. Learning of his losses, he worshipped God saying, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21b) He did not blame or curse God. But, in questioning God, and hearing the Almighty’s queries of him, Job acknowledged an understanding of where he fit in the overall scheme of life. . . and that God was in control. And God eventually blessed him even more than before.  I am impressed with Job’s humility as he learned to fully trust our loving, all-knowing and powerful God.

In unbelievable circumstances that I can’t comprehend, others have struggled to regain normalcy after devastating losses, knowing their life will never be the same. I’m sure they wish their life stories were different. But God knows why life has its rough roads. He knows our story from start to finish. (Psalm 139:13-16) He hears our cries and pleadings. And, though God seems silent at times, I’m reassured by Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” 

As God drew us into a closer relationship with Him on a path we didn’t like, Ed and I knew that He would never leave us nor forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5b) We understand the redemptive quality which pain and difficulty can bring to our lives. For God did not promise us an easy life as a Christian, but “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33) And as Philip Yancey put it so well, “We’re concerned with how things turn out; God is more concerned with how we turn out.”  (“The Question That Never Goes Away – Why?”, p.105) Therein lie the keys to accepting and understanding life’s difficult disabilities.

When there are no answers to pleas for healing, may you, too, feel the Lord’s loving arms gently holding you with a comfort and peace only He can give.  May you feel His strength enable you to finish well the path He’s allowed you to walk. And may you know His answer will yet be coming in His time…though perhaps not until you stand face to face with Him. And may we each be found worthy at the end of our journey.

Answers

by Linda A. Roorda

Sometimes we have no healing for pain

And answers to prayers seem elusive at best

But in the silence the Lord whispers soft…

I am still here; You are not alone.

When the way gets rough, I will guide your steps

When the path is steep, your hand I will hold

When the night is long, at your side I’ll be

When you can’t go on, I will carry you.

Though sometimes My will is not what you want

Plans I have made take time to work out

Wending their way through trials you face

With meaning found as your heart seeks mine.

There’s much I long to share from My word

Coming together with trust placed in Me

Finding comfort in My arms of peace

When to Me you give control of your path.

Even though Faith is bright hope unseen

It covers your soul, a protective shield

And holds you tight when stormy winds blow

To persevere when all else seems lost.

For though sometimes answers seem fleeting

Your heart is held still gently secure

That you may know My mercy and grace

Hold your best interests in loving scarred hands.

Linda Roorda writes from her home in Spencer.