“Why doesn’t God heal those who know, love and obey Him?”

QUESTION: I understand why God doesn’t heal everyone, but why doesn’t He at least heal those who know Him, love Him, obey Him, serve Him and pray specifically for healing?

ANSWER:Many have asked this question through the ages, feeling justified in doing so. But we are on slippery ground when we question why God does what He does. He is the sovereign Potter who can do what He sees best with us, the clay (Jer.18:4). Who are we to question either God’s ways, love or wisdom? He tells us: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways ... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9 NKJV).

The Old Testament patriarch Job, whom God commended as “blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1), was struck simultaneously with many calamities one day, losing his vast possessions and all ten of his children. A short while later he was struck with “painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” Initially he accepted this dreadful suffering from God’s hand and did not sin with his lips nor charge God with wrong (Job 1-2). But then through many chapters Job fought to justify himself when his friends accused him of secret sin, and struggled with the question of why a righteous man such as he should suffer so terribly. Whether he ever found out that his distress came from Satan, who was trying to turn him against God and God against him, we are not told. But ultimately he was blessed, coming to know God’s greatness and abhor himself rather than insist upon his righteousness.

The apostle Paul certainly qualified as one who knew, loved, obeyed and served God. While we do not know definitely what his “thorn in the flesh” was, it is reasonable to assume, as most do, that this was some kind of physical malady. He tells us that “concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Cor. 12:7-9).

Paul tells us, too, what he learned through this very difficult experience: “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

If God were to heal every believer whose life pleased Him and who was sick, we would be taking many things out of His hand and in essence setting our wisdom and desires above His. He may use sickness as a means to draw us closer to Him or to teach us lessons we would learn in no other way. Sometimes, as in the cases of Job and of Paul, sickness in a believer’s life may ultimately even serve for the good of others. After all, aren’t we still learning from these examples given us in God’s Word?

Many Christians forget, or even angrily reject, what the apostles told their converts: “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). God has not promised us an easy life in this world. He has given us examples of faithful believers who were sick – Timothy (1 Tim. 5:23), Trophimus (2 Tim. 4:20) and Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25-30). Only the latter was healed, and Paul regarded this as a special mercy rather than as something to be expected, taken for granted or demanded. But whatever the circumstances, we will always find that God’s grace is sufficient for us. Like our Lord Jesus, we can pray for relief, adding however, “Not what I will, but what You will” (Mk. 14:36).

By Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.