How would you react, how would you feel if information came out that the medical industry had found a cure for childhood leukemia several years ago, but had calculated the loss of hundreds of billions of dollars of lost revenue if they would have released it? That offering the cure would have made them millions, but prevention and treatment would bring in billions, perhaps much more than that. Angry, incredulous, furious, do those emotions reach the level of hatred towards those groups that the public would reach if such knowledge was released?
“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” (Mark 9:23)
The Almighty can heal you; He can heal anyone and everyone with a simple word, yet He does not, not only His children, those who have been born-again, those who will live in His Kingdom forever, but everyone ever born are left to suffer, save for those occasional miracles.
Now, how do you feel?
Have the tables been turned, has the Great Physician been revealed differently in your eyes, do you now view Him as those medical experts who may have held back relief from the populace?
My guess is you thought, “Thy will be done,” or perhaps 2 Corinthians 12:9 came into your mind, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Or the old standby, “In heaven there will be no pain, no sorrow.”
Now, this may all sound disrespectful to you, but I assure you it’s not intended to be. The Lord not only allows suffering to enter into our lives, but He brings it upon us sometimes, and He leaves us in it.
Are you starting to understand why the lost that we speak to have no desire to worship the Lord of Glory?
We tell them of His love, His unfathomable power and grace, that He is Sovereign over all of creation, and they watch their children die of horrible diseases, they suffer in anguish and pain, their lives are ripped apart, their souls are tormented, and we say, “Jesus loves you.”
“Really?” “Jesus loves me? This God you’re speaking of, this being who you say created and controls everything that is, who is all powerful loves me? Then why is my child dying in that hospital room over there?”
Now comes the question. What are you going to say to them?
Were you not just in church last Sunday praising His Holy name, did you not just read in His Holy Word that, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) Well, there is that one little caveat, isn’t there, if it’s in His will.
That’s all you have for that angry, grieving, heartbroken parent, it’s in God’s will, but He loves you.
“Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.” (2 Sam. 12:14) David spent seven days without food or water, no change of clothes, earnest prayer and supplication, many tears, begging for forgiveness so that his sin would not be imposed upon an innocent child. Even anger, yet the child died.
“And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?” (2 Sam. 12:22)
Resigned to the will of God, that is what we are to be, no matter the circumstances or the possible consequences to ourselves or others, we are always to be resigned to the will of God, we are always to say “Thy will be done.”
If you cannot do that, your salvation is in question, or at the very least your faith is beyond weak.
Perhaps you could come back to that parent after the grieving is done, after the grass has grown over their child’s grave, perhaps a seed has been planted.
I have no set in stone words for you, but I will leave you with this. What if it’s your child, or your spouse that you love dearly. You know the Lord can heal them, but He chooses not to, He lets them lay there and suffer horribly, and then they die.
There are not just pebbles and stones, holes and tripping points on the path to the kingdom of the Most High, there are deep chasms of pain and suffering.
Are you prepared for them?
