God's Healing

Dear Victorious,

The Bible is full of miracles of God's healing people from sickness and disease. He even raised the dead! So here's the thing. Why doesn't that happen all the time? Why, when we pray for someone in to be healed of cancer, for example, does God not do it? I know He heals some people some of the time, but why doesn't He heal all people all of the time?

David C. - Nairobi, Kenya

Dear David,

Think about the question you just asked. If God healed all of the people all of the time, nobody would ever die. There would never be any sickness. It would be heaven!

You have to remember a very important fact here --- and it is that our purpose on this earth is to serve God, please God and glorify God. We exist for His purposes only. So when I pray for God's healing in someone, that healing is only going to come if it would serve God's purposes.

It may please God to heal someone of cancer, for example. Then again, it may serve His purposes to have the individual walk through cancer and die of it. Maybe that individual has finished all He wanted them to accomplish on this earth, and it is time for them to go. Maybe God wants others to learn as they watch this individual walk through cancer. (The same could be true of any disease or malady someone may be suffering from.)

When I am afflicted with pain or suffering or sickness of any kind, I should only expect God's grace to be sufficient for me as I walk through it. You have to remember though that God engineered this human death experience that we all get to have. And God doesn't do anything without a purpose. So even if we can't see the reason or understand His purposes, they are still there and they are still good (because God is good.)