Jesus heals

How could I not believe that God heals after watching my husband in the past few years?

First, he had pancreatitis and could not digest fats. He took enzymes so he could eat without problems. During that time, our pastor said he would have a prayer time for healing every time he preached on a text that was about healing. He called the elders to the front of the service and they prayed with and for anyone who went forward.

My husband, an elder at that time, prayed for several people. He never mentioned his own ailment to anyone, but it seems God healed him during that first healing service. Even though it is not supposed to just ‘go away’ he no longer has pancreatitis.

He’s had a few other things that required medical attention. People prayed for him, and his healing came extremely quick, faster than normal. Then he was diagnosed with CLL last June. Since then, people began praying about that. He has had no symptoms, and at this time, seems completely unaffected by this chronic form of leukemia.

Now this heart attack. He got into the hospital within forty-five minutes of his first symptoms, which was good, but was given a triple overdose of blood thinners, which was bad. Nevertheless, he was alert throughout, even during the insertion of the stent in his heart artery. He got up from that process and walked to the Gurney, much to the surprise of the medical staff. During all that time, people were praying.

At the moment, he is downstairs unloading the dishwasher and making breakfast. He is obeying orders that forbid him from working or driving, but is walking, taking calls, catching up with his e-mail, and feeling wonderful. It is almost as if last week did not happen.

While doctors, and good general health and self-care play a part, Jesus is the healer. Mark 6:56 says, “Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well.”

Whenever I read about the healing that Jesus did, I notice one thing. He didn’t pick and choose; He healed “as many as touched Him.” Sometimes people pray for healing and when it doesn’t happen, they fear they didn’t have enough faith, or they were not asking right, or they have done some horrible thing and God is mad at them. However, Jesus didn’t pick only ‘good’ people to heal; He healed whoever came.

During our infrequent healing services at church, the pastor carefully points out that God has not changed. He still heals, and we must believe that He can, but we must also trust His decisions. Some sickness has a purpose behind it. In another church in another part of the world, another pastor explained that God allows sickness sometimes so He can heal it and be glorified, sometimes to chasten sin, sometimes to draw people closer to Himself, and sometimes because that is the method by which He is going to take a person home to be with Him. He may not heal because being sick is part of His plan for that person.

What has been affirmed to me this past week is that when dying is not your turn, it is not your turn. God controls life and death. My husband, had he not been cared for so quickly, would have died. The blood thinner could have killed him. But God has His hand on all of this; He put it into Bob’s head to go quickly to the ER, and somehow He kept that attack and even the blood thinner from doing what they were trying to do. It was not his turn.

Why does God heal one person and let another die? That is too big a question for me. Someday I will know. Right now, I know that whatever He does, it is based on a knowledge and a mercy that will take an eternity for me to understand and appreciate.