When God Doesn’t Heal
Dr. John Ankerberg: Joni, is it God’s will to heal all those who truly come to Him in faith? Is it always a given that He will say yes to our requests for healing? Is it a sure thing that miraculous healing is always His first and best option? Some in the Christian church assert that if you aren’t experiencing the healing, it’s only because you lack the necessary faith, or perhaps you have some hidden sin in your life. How do you respond to that?
Joni Eareckson Tada: Well, the passage of Scripture that spoke most clearly to me was from the Gospel of Mark, the very first chapter. Jesus is in Capernaum and He’s healing people left, right, and center; all the way past sunset. Finally He retires, and the people go away. But He gets up early the next morning and goes to a solitary place to pray. After sunrise, people come back, bringing more sick, and lame, and injured, looking for Jesus.
Simon and his companions go searching for the Lord, but they can’t find Him. Finally, when they do locate Him, they say to Him, “Jesus, everyone’s looking for you.” You know, all these sick and diseased people at the bottom of the hill. And what He says to His disciples in the 38th verse is so striking. Without hardly glancing at the people at the bottom of the hill, He says to them, “Well, let’s go somewhere else. Let’s go to the nearby villages where I can preach there also, for,” now get this, “this is why I have come.”
When I read that, I realized that it wasn’t that Jesus did not care about all those people at the bottom of the hill with their cancer and paralysis and diseases. It’s just that their physical problems weren’t His main focus; the gospel was His main focus. The gospel that says, “Sin kills; hell is real; but God is merciful; His kingdom can change you; and I’m your passport.” And whenever people started rushing at Jesus just to get their problems fixed, the Savior would always back away.
And I looked further to understand more about Jesus’ priorities in healing, because the same God-Man who healed withered hands and opened blind eyes is the same one that said, “if that hand causes you to sin, cut it off; if that eye leads you astray, gouge it out.” Oh, my goodness, when I read this, suddenly I saw Jesus’ priorities. And He was looking for a deeper healing in my life—not just a physical healing of fingers and feet, but a healing in my heart and my soul.
Slowly over time I saw that the core of God’s plan is to rescue me from my own sin, from my own stiff-necked stubborn willfulness, my selfishness. And suffering will be the tool that He will use to teach me about who I really am. I am not the paragon of virtue that I would like to think I am. But God allows suffering to squeeze me and confine me and press me in. And out pours all this peevish discontent and this sour disposition and this disgruntledness and bitterness. Oh, my goodness, those are the things that I need to be healed of and freed from. And that’s the deeper healing that Psalm 139 talks about, “Search me, O God, try me and see if there’s any offensive way in me.”
John, honestly, when people come up to me now and say, “I want to pray for your healing,” I never refuse it. I always welcome people’s prayers for my healing. But invariably I will say, “Before you start, may I tell you a few specifics on how you can pray? Pray that tomorrow morning when I wake up I won’t wake up so self-defeated, I won’t wake up so discontent. Would you please pray that I’ll quit hogging the spotlight, and that I will quit fudging the truth? Please pray that I’ll quit manipulating my husband with those precisely-timed phrases of mine. Pray that I’ll give credit where credit should be due and not take it for myself. Pray,…” I mean, these are the kinds of things I need to be healed of. And the more I am healed of those things, the less important, the less urgent, my desire to walk. I guess I’ve just discovered that there are more important things in life than walking, and one of those things is having a heart that is pure and a soul that is heaven-bent on pleasing my Savior. That is the deeper healing.
Extracted from our series, “Where is God When Life Hurts?” Slightly edited for publication. This entire series with Dr. Michael Easley and Joni Eareckson Tada is available through our online store at jashow.org.
