One of the greatest mysteries we grapple with is why God heals some people, but not others. A friend and I were discussing this recently. As usual, my thoughts continued long after our conversation, so I decided to share them here.
A few years ago, our pastor announced in June that he had liver and pancreatic cancer. He was gone before the end of summer. He was in his prime, pastoring a church with a love for his people that I have rarely seen matched. Two of his daughters got married that summer, and he was able to walk them both down the aisle. But he would have been a terrific grandfather in the coming years. He seemed to have so many years of usefulness left, it was puzzling that God took him home.
Another former pastor’s grandson underwent an excruciating battle with leukemia, which he eventually lost despite hundreds of people’s prayers.
Others experience disabilities for the rest of their lives, either from birth or from an accident or illness.
We can never know all of God’s reasons for what He allows. But here are a few:
We live in a fallen world affected by sin, so there will be illnesses and death until God redeems the earth. Christians aren’t exempt from these effects of the fall.
None of us is guaranteed a long life. We need to be ready for eternity.
God’s perspective. A seemingly early death is not a tragedy to God: it’s a head start on heaven as He welcomes His loved one home.
God enables us to minister to others through what we suffer. Joni Eareckson Tada has been paralyzed since a diving accident fifty-seven years ago. I don’t know of anyone who has done more to help the disabled community, bring awareness of what disabled people suffer, and glorify God in the midst of suffering. Those things probably would not have happened without her accident. When she speaks, we listen, because we know she has proven what she’s speaking about. She’s not mouthing empty platitudes or theories.
God’s strength is displayed through our weakness. Paul famously prayed three times for God to remove an affliction from him. But God answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Healing was not Jesus’ primary purpose. Jesus healed multitudes of people during His time on earth. He demonstrated compassion and power as He did so. But He said His purpose was to preach the gospel (Mark 2:32-39).
God’s glory displayed. When the disciples asked whether a man’s sins or those of his parents caused his blindness, Jesus said, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” John 9:1-7). Similarly, when Jesus received the news that Lazarus was sick, he said, “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:1-4).
Jesus wasn’t grandstanding. He wanted to show people who He was so they could believe.
Since Jesus is glorified through healing, it’s even more puzzling that He would not heal everyone. But sometimes He is glorified more by displaying His grace through His people’s trials, as He did in Joni and Paul’s lives.
Suffering strengthens and develops us. The apostle Paul wrote, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Trials keep us dependent upon the Lord. We always are dependent on God, but sometimes we forget. Sometimes we need His help in areas other people never think about, but that continual dependence is a good reminder that our strength comes from Him. Paul said his “thorn in the flesh” was given so that he might not become conceited over the revelations that had been given to him.
Suffering prepares us for glory. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “So 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, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Paul is not being dismissive when he calls our afflictions “light.” He’s saying that they’ll seem light compared to the glory to come.
Though all of these factors help at times, they don’t satisfy at other times. I’ve been ministered to by what Amy Carmichael wrote in Rose From Brier (emphasis mine):
But, though, indeed, we know that pain nobly born strengthens the soul, knits hearts together, leads to unselfish sacrifice (and we could not spare from our lives the Christ of the Cross), yet, when the raw nerve in our own flesh is touched, we know, with a knowledge that penetrates to a place which these words cannot reach, that our question is not answered. It is only pushed farther back, for why should that be the way of strength, and why need hearts be knit together by such sharp knitting needles, and who would not willingly choose relief rather than the pity of the pitiful?
…What, then, is the answer? I do not know. I believe that it is one of the secret things of the Lord, which will not be opened to us till we see Him who endured the Cross, see the scars in His hands and feet and side, see Him, our Beloved, face to face. I believe that in that revelation of love, which is far past our understanding now, we shall “understand even as all along we have been understood.”
And till then? What does a child do whose mother or father allows something to be done which it cannot understand? There is only one way of peace. It is the child’s way. The loving child trusts.
I believe that we who know our God, and have proved Him good past telling, will find rest there. The faith of the child rests on the character it knows. So may ours, so shall ours. Our Father does not explain, nor does He assure us as we long to be assured… But we know our Father. We know His character. Somehow, somewhere, the wrong must be put right; how we do not know, only we know that, because He is what He is, anything else is inconceivable. For the word sent to the man whose soul was among lions and who was soon to be done to death, unsuccored, though the Lord of Daniel was so near, is fathomless: “And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.”
There is only one place we can receive, not an answer to our questions, but peace — that place is Calvary. An hour at the foot of the Cross steadies the soul as nothing else can. “O Christ beloved, Thy Calvary stills all our questions.” Love that loves like that can be trusted about this.
Perhaps we wouldn’t be able to understand even if God did explain why He allows such severe pain and loss. But the more we know Him, the better we can trust Him. Like the psalmists, we can pour out our anguish to Him, then remind ourselves of His love and mercy and care for us.
(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)
Stray Thoughts 
Now that’s a hard question to wrap your head & heart around.
our pastor recently preached a wonderful sermon series on this very topic….about suffering. Another reason I didn’t see mentioned here is “we reap what we sow”. Sometimes there are natural consequences to our actions: rough example: sugar consumption daily can lead to diabetes. Yes there are meds but how much better to just avoid the sugery treats! My aunt keeps asking God to heal her from diabetes but continues to eat all kinds of sweets. So…….sometimes it’s consequences. I LOVED this post and want to show it to her.
From what I have researched, excess sugar doesn’t cause diabetes directly. Weight and genetics are the bigger factors–though of course, sugar can lead to extra weight. And once one has diabetes, controlling sugars and carbs is necessary. As someone with a confirmed sweet tooth, saying “Stop eating sugar” is like telling a smoker, “Stop smoking.” Both my parents and my father-in-law were smokers and had a hard time stopping. It’s not impossible to stop either smoking or excess sugar–but it’s not like flipping a light switch, either.
But yes, a lot of time our suffering is caused by our own actions and consequences. Thankfully, God uses consequences to turn our hearts to Him, and He offers His mercy and grace.
We don’t know the amount of time we will have on this earth. But, we do know that our loving Father is with us in every moment. When He call us home, we will rejoice and rest with Him. Have a blessed day! 🙂
Amen, Melissa. He is trustworthy and promises to be with us in all that He allows.
I have thought way too much about this topic! One thing that always kind of bothers me is when a non-Christian requests prayer for himself or someone else who is seriously ill. If they don’t recover– does that reflect poorly on Christianity (yes, I know it’s not up to me to determine that …)? Sometimes I take the longer view and wonder why we get so worked up when someone dies “young” at 50 or so. In the long view, is another 20-30 years such a big deal in the scheme of life? And maybe Jesus didn’t overly emphasize healing because he knew exactly that — that this life on earth is such a small piece of eternity. I love the Amy Carmichael quote! Good thoughts, Barbara.
I think the grief that seems extra when someone dies relatively young is for our personal loss. My mom passed away at 68, and that seemed much too soon for me. Now that I am approaching that age, it seems really too young! Not only do I miss being able to talk with her, but I grieve that she didn’t get to know her granddaughter-in-law and great-grandson, as well as her grandkids as adults. But the thought of what she was experiencing in heaven was the one thing that kept me from wishing her back.
Even knowing something of what heaven is like, we still cling to this life as long as possible. I heard someone say that’s one reason our bodies start breaking down as we age–to make us gradually willing to let them go.
That’s an interesting question about whether unanswered prayer is a poor testimony to lost people. I guess that’s one of the things we have to leave in God’s hands. One thought: perhaps the person is only concerned about healing, and has no interest in God beyond that. Maybe God’s refusal to heal would cause that person more soul-searching. On the other hand, he could be driven farther away from God because His prayer wasn’t answered. I’m glad God knows what each heart needs.
There’s so much I don’t understand. I used to try to figure it all out but now I just accept that I won’t know. I’m simply trusting that God’s ways are so much bigger and wiser and so far beyond anything I can comprehend. I have to trust His character, His wisdom, His heart. And therein I find some measure of peace.
That’s what it all comes back to–trust in our Father, who always acts in love and wisdom.
Wow, Barbara. This came at the perfect time for me. I just learned last Friday that a cousin who I was close to growing up passed away. He’d suffered so much over the last several years with cancer, mini strokes which led to a type of dementia and then another bout with cancer. He was a Christian, so I know he is with the Lord now, but God has a plan for each of us and it normally includes some type of pain and/or suffering for each of us. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and Scripture with us.
I’m so sorry to hear about your cousin.
Sometimes it’s hard to accept that life includes suffering. But we know God has good reasons for what He allows.
A very thought provoking post about a sensitive subject. Thank you.
Thank you, Melanie.
This is such a good post, Barbara. It’s a topic that many people struggle with, I think, and you have such good reminders here. I forget many times that our physical healing here on Earth isn’t the endgame. I heard it said somewhere once that when a child of God dies of physical sickness, God has healed them in the ultimate kind of way. While here on Earth, though, it can be hard to remember that sometimes.
The first time I heard someone say that about death being the ultimate healing–I thought it was kind of a cop-out. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was true. Anyone who has been healed, and even the people Jesus raised from the dead, were going to die at some point. It’s only once we get to heaven that pain and sorrow and sickness and death will be no more.
That link between suffering and glory, the way the Bible describes it not merely as a reward for the suffering but something that actually GROWS out of suffering is the thing that encourages me most on this excruciating topic.
His ways are inscrutable, but we press in to our questions—not because we expect God to be accountable to us, but because we want to know him.
Michelle, yes! and I love the way you put it, that glory actually grows out of suffering. That’s what I cling to when life gets tough.
The fact that God has purpose in our suffering has been one of the hardest things to grapple with. But I know, from His word and experience, that it’s true. I like how Joni Eareckson Tada puts it–that God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves.
I love your last sentence, too–that we come with our questions not because He is accountable to us, but because we want to know Him.
And isn’t it wonderful that God stays in conversation with us around our pressing questions? I’m so grateful that he wants to be known!
There is so much I don’t understand. As the years have passes, I have become better able to accept that the Lord knows why. But this morning these words brought comfort >>> “it’s a head start on heaven as He welcomes His loved one home.” This turns death from a tragedy to a triumph, and that is so true.
This is such a difficult question that I think we all grapple with, and as the beautiful Amy Carmichael quote points out, all we can really do is trust our heavenly Father with all our unanswered questions. We find comfort there and in considering the many possible reasons that you listed, and in understanding that whether earthly healing comes or not, God is glorified. I love the thought that an “early death” is a head start on heaven!
This is so helpful, Barbara. And I really appreciate Amy Carmichael’s words …
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