“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” (Psalm 139:14)
If you will allow me to, I would like to return to a subject brought up just a short while ago in these letters to you, and I would like to start with this question. Are we as a people more blessed than those who came before us?
I do not refer to the Spiritual here, but the physical, to the opportunity for most to simply go down the street a few blocks or so each time we feel an ailment coming on, when an emergency of the flesh comes upon us? Are most more blessed than even those of only a few decades ago, much less those of hundreds or even thousands of years ago because we have the opportunity for ever advancing medical assistance nearly every hour of the day?
I ask another question of you, is this verse and others like it still relevant for our day? “And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.” (Mark 5:34)
Have you ever seen a broken arm immediately healed by faith, a car crash victim prayed over and then gets up and walks away? Is our faith not strong enough in these days that we need all these hospitals and clinics, all these doctors, nurses and specialists? Is “Thy will be done” just another way to say, “Well, God isn’t healing me, I had better get to the doctor.”
I am not speaking here of the Lord Jesus Christ or even the apostles going out to heal the sick, but of one who said you do not even need to come to my house, just say the word. Has the ability of physicians readily accessible caused the faith of the chosen to lesson?
Recall the account of the woman with the issue of blood, she had spent all of her living over much time with the physicians, Jesus was not her last hope, she knew, without a shadow of doubt that He could heal her, and He did. Lazarus was laid at the rich man’s gate by his friends, how many times did they take him to the physicians? Would Job have gone to the emergency room today?
If those spoken of in the Scriptures faith healed them, why are we not healed? Do we not have the same faith? Are we not told, “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:14) Are we to pray for health insurance or enough financial wherewithal to go to the clinic when we need to be healed? Or are we just to say, “Thy will be done.”
It is a good question, but I fear that it may not be the best question for those of little faith.
Perhaps sometimes the Lord heals some of us, but there are still untold numbers of born-again believers, true children of the Living God in hospitals today, going to appointments to the clinics, reaching out for medical advice and that after much prayer and supplication, which my brothers and sisters in Christ, in no intended disrespect to our Father in heaven in any way, He is not answering. Why not?
I understand the godly will suffer persecutions, but that is not the occasional physical ailments that assail each of us. Our faith does not always heal our body and I wonder why.
Grief and sorrow I understand, our Lord was a man firmly acquainted with them, I simply ask the question, is my faith not enough to heal my flesh, even when it matches those we read about?
I will end this letter as it should be ended.
Thy will be done.
