Recently I’ve had some conversations around the issue of God’s healing—why are some healed and not others? Is it all a matter of having enough faith? What if I earnestly pray for healing and nothing happens?
One of my writing focuses is the mystery of God. There is no lack of mystery around these issues!
Years ago I encountered a phrase from Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Jr. that has helped me immensely: “I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity…but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”
Assuming God’s healing depends on our faith is a simplistic view that ignores the complexity of life and Scripture. It is human-centered, not God-centered. In the Bible, healing is always a response of God’s compassionate love for hurting people, not a reward for human faith. The simplistic formula of faith = healing we sometimes hear has had terrible consequences for many people.
- It causes confusion. Perhaps you have known people, as I have, who had deep, indomitable faith and yet prayed for healing without receiving it; at the same time, others who were clearly less faithful were If faith = healing, what kind of capricious God is this who cannot follow his own rules?
- It creates guilt and despair. If faith = healing and the healing I ask for is not forthcoming, I can only conclude that it’s my fault. I must live with the guilt, shame and despair that God did not find me (or my faith) worthy enough. If I’ve tried my hardest to believe and it’s still not enough, who would not give up? In my time in Ethiopia, I encountered such stories of people turning away from God for just these reasons.
- It leads us away from Jesus. We sift our minds looking for doubts and fears, and when we find them (as we always will), we suppress them. We will ourselves to have more faith. It isn’t long before our faith is in our faith—not in Jesus! God becomes nothing more than the machine that dispenses healing if you insert the correct change of faith into the coin slot. Faith becomes primary; Jesus becomes secondary. But this is the subtlest form of idolatry. Our faith is never in our faith, but in a God who loves us.
So where do we land? I’d submit that healing from God is ordinary and expected, but remains a mystery. God’s healing ways are shrouded in mystery. Healing is always an act of God’s love and love is always a mystery. We cannot program or control love. Love acts as it will. Often it will take different paths than we expect.
In his book Healing, Francis MacNutt tells a story of being invited to pray for a boy named Randy to be cured of severe asthma. He did so, gathering the whole family around the boy in the prayer. A year later when he was back in the same city visiting the family, the parents asked if he would like to hear how the prayer for healing had been answered.
After MacNutt had left that night, Randy had the worst asthma attack of his entire life! The attack was so severe, the panicked family made an emergency call to a doctor who lived down the street; this physician came immediately and gave Randy medication that quieted him until morning. The next day the neighboring doctor examined Randy, and came up with a different treatment that ultimately cured his asthma once and for all. After he tells this story, Francis McNutt, who is something of the Michael Phelps of healing ministry, ruefully summarizes: “that prayer was answered in a way helpful to my humility.”
As Randy was having the worst asthma attack of his life, perhaps his parents thought: “God certainly didn’t answer our prayers!” But God did answer—in a situation that brought a new doctor the family would otherwise have never consulted; this train of unexpected events led to the healing cure.
God’s healing ways are complex. The simplicity on this side of complexity says faith = healing. In other words, it’s ultimately “all about me.” The simplicity on the other side of complexity trusts that God will heal, but realizes there are many complexities and mysteries in God’s healing ways. Sometimes we can pray for one kind of healing and God surprisingly gives us another.
Healing is an act of God’s love, and love can never be programmed or controlled—even by our faith. Love is always a mystery.
