Why does God heal some and not others?
Why Lord?
[1]How many of us have prayed to God that someone would be healed and yet God apparently has said “No.” Why does God heal some and not others? Many people who even live a godlier life are sometimes not healed when those who live like the world, are healed. Jesus’ physical healing was not universally applied to everyone who followed Him and we can read biblical accounts like Paul’s and others who God did not heal. Even though the Apostle Paul was perhaps closest to Christ in his ministry than most, God told him no. Clearly, God sometimes chooses to sustain believers through hardship with His grace rather than removing the physical trial by healing them. God loved His One and only Son, but He did not spare Him from physical suffering and death. God loved the Apostle Paul greatly, but God was somehow sovereignly orchestrating his faith through this painful thorn in the flesh. Paul’s passionate plea to God was that he be healed but he was turned down by God three times!
A Thorn in the Flesh
I believe God did not reveal Paul’s thorn in the flesh because if we had the same thing, nobody would ever hear the last of it. God was silent on this “thorn” I believe because everyone might endure some thorn in one way or another. It might not be a physical thorn. It might be a child betraying you, a spouse leaving you or a mortgage you can’t pay. So why does God sometimes decline our prayer for healing? Even if we don’t know, He does, and isn’t that all that matters?! I am very skeptical about claims that promise to reduce healing to a formula or a manageable cause and effect phenomenon in which we can know with certainty why God has allowed this to happen or what He has not answered our prayer.
[2]Saint Paul Writing His Epistles by Valentin de Boulogne (public domain).
A Lack of Faith?
We must acknowledge the fact that some healings does not occur because of the absence of faith that God delights to honor. This does not mean that every time a person isn’t healed it is because of their lack of faith or has weak faith. Of course, faith is very important as we can later read about in the New Testament: Matthew 9:22, 28-29; 15:28; Mark 2:5,11; 5:34; 9:17-24; Mark 10:52; Luke 17:19; Acts 3:16; 14:8-10; James 5:14-16. Who would accuse Paul of a lack of faith since he was not healed?
God-Glorifying Faith
True faith points us away from ourselves and directly toward God. Faith acknowledges that somethings we cannot do things in our own power or might. Our confidence is not in our faith but in the Person we have faith in…Jesus Christ. He can heal instantly or slowly or not at all…but He knows what is best for us. Turn to Him, cling to Him, and trust in Him and not in your own prayer efforts. Faith in God and His sovereignty is a denial of self while recognizing His ability to do things that are impossible for us.
Abiding Sin
[3]God may allow suffering or physical disease because someone (or we) is living in sin. If there is the ongoing presence of sin, with no confession or repentance of sin, God may discipline His children with illness. James 5:15-16 clearly instructs us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another that we may be healed. Healed from what? A sin that is causing us to be sick! To make it clear, not everyone who isn’t healed is living with unconfessed sin. We likely don’t know that. We cannot judge them. And we’ve got to deeply desire true healing and not just want this “thorn in the flesh” to be our idol so that we can receive the pity of others. Jesus asked the paralyzed man in John 5:6, “Do you want to be healed?” What appears on the surface to be a ridiculous question is, on further reflection, found to be profoundly insightful. It is possible that their whole identity is wrapped up in their physical illness and they don’t want to lose that “power” or are afraid to be healed and lose several benefits from their illness.
Paralyzed Prayer?
After a while, we can become paralyzed in our prayer life, because we have had no answer to our prayer for healing. When that happens, we begin to pray less and it is less likely God may answer our prayer. It is so easy to allow discouragement to paralyze our petitions for healing. We finally give up even asking and that’s bad because we are told that “you do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). The tragedy is not unanswered prayer, but in un-asked for prayer.
Spiritual Growth
Perhaps more often than we realize, there are dimensions of spiritual growth and moral development in our ongoing suffering and this typically increases our knowledge of God. When afflicted, we often seek comfort in the Bible, and that desire becomes greater than our desire for physical healing. In the wisdom of God, He has determined a means to His ends, and it’s not usually perfect physical health. God is more interested in our holiness than our healthiness. This doesn’t mean our physical body is not important, but our spiritual growth toward holiness is a greater achievement than being healthy.
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Growth in Holiness
More important to God than our physical health is our spiritual holiness. This isn’t to say the body isn’t important, but God desires an inner and spiritual conformity to the image of Christ that often comes only at the expense of suffering. The Apostle Paul tells us that “we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor 4:16-17). If our affliction was not preparing us for eternal glory, then God would not have allowed it.
Our Very Best
God orchestrates everything in our lives…good, bad and the ugly, for our very best (Rom 8:28). God desires more than good physical health for us…He desires a hunger for Him, a desire for holiness, and a yearning for His Word. Perhaps our suffering and not being healed is the only means by which these things can be attain by God. It is often by the difficult means of physical affliction that we learn the lessons of submission, dependency, and trust in God. We find ourselves coming to the end of our rope, only to find God was waiting there all the time. Perhaps that’s what He was waiting for in the first place.
Living by Faith
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In the end, we can only wonder why God didn’t heal us or someone else, but God does not owe us an explanation. We live by faith and not by explanations. If we had explanations for everything, how would our faith grow? Even if we don’t know the reason God doesn’t heal, we must continue to pray for healing or at least a lessening of the pain. Even if we never know why a person isn’t healed, don’t stop praying! The only reason Paul stopped praying after three times was because God told him that His grace is sufficient. If it was good for Paul to know, then it is also good for us to know that God’s grace is sufficient in all circumstances, so that “for the sake of Christ” (2 Cor. 12:10a), we might learn that in our weakness His power is made perfect!
Conclusion
I pray you have put your trust in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If that has not happened yet, my friend, you are in real danger of hell fire. And I mean, in immediate danger. You’re one breath, one heartbeat…one accident away from eternity when it will be too late to repent. Today is the best day to believe (2 Cor 6:2) since tomorrow is no guarantee. If Jesus Christ came today, here is your fate (Matt 7:21-23). This is why I plead with you as you read this, repent today…and I mean right now. Put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you do not, you will face God’s judgment after death guaranteed (Heb 9:27) or at Jesus Christ’s appearance (Rev 20:12-15), which could happen at any moment.
Here is some related reading for you: Is By His Stripes We Are Healed a Promise to Heal Everyone? [6]
Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.