“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will abound in hope and overflow with confidence in His promises.” (Romans 15:13 AMP)
My Bible Recap readings today were from Matthew 8 and Mark 2 where there are several stories of healing. A man with leprosy broke all social taboos and approached Jesus to ask for healing. An official in the Roman army had enough faith in this itinerant preacher and healer to ask for healing for his paralyzed and suffering servant. When Jesus was visiting Peter’s house, he entered Peter’s mother-in-law’s bedroom to touch her hand and heal her fever. Two men were released from the many demons that were within them. Friends of a paralyzed man broke through a roof to lower the man into the presence of Jesus, who saw their faith, forgave the man’s sins, and healed him of his paralysis. “Many” were brought to Jesus “and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed them.” (Matthew 8:16 NIV)
All these stories emphasize faith in Jesus’s ability to heal. However, the faith is not always held by the people who are healed. It seems like the man with leprosy had faith – knew that Jesus could heal him. “Lord…if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” (Matthew 8:2 NIV) But we have no idea whether the suffering servant had any faith at all; we only hear of his master the Centurion’s faith. “Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.” (Matthew 8:8 NIV) We have no indication that Peter’s mother-in-law was even conscious when Jesus healed her (Matthew 8:15), and people who are demon possessed are probably not going to seek out healing from Jesus. (What demon would want to be exorcised?) The friends who destroyed a roof to seek healing for their paralyzed friend, must have had faith to bring the friend, but none of the English translations I referenced explained whether “their faith” that Jesus saw included the paralyzed man, or just his four friends. (Mark 2:5)
There seems to be no measure of faith – no “prescription” – that determines whether someone is healed. Jesus decides to heal, and then he heals. So, what do we do when we have faith for our healing or we have faith for others’ healing, and they aren’t healed? I have two dear friends who have struggled for months and years with chronic pain. Surgeries, physical therapy, and drugs may help relieve the pain, but never completely free them of it. Both are godly women of great faith; why doesn’t Jesus heal them? l have two friends with spouses who are severely ill with crippling auto-immune or long-covid conditions. People have prayed and continue to pray for healing for them, but their health doesn’t seem to be improving. Do their spouses and others who are praying for them not have enough faith for them to be healed? Some faith traditions believe that if you have enough faith and speak enough of the right Bible verses over a situation, God will heal it. After all, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20 NIV) Jesus just said that the amount of faith someone has can be as small as a minuscule mustard seed, and still be enough to move a mountain!! So, why aren’t people of faith healed?
Maybe there’s some internal work they need to do with the Lord. Maybe they haven’t dealt with some sin or area of forgiveness or something else that is impeding their healing. Maybe there are things from long, long ago that God wants to address before they can be freed from their physical struggles.
Maybe it’s not time yet. Their healing will come when God can receive the most glory for that healing, and so it’s a “not right now, but later.”
Maybe they (whether the ill person or their friends/family) do not yet know God or the power of his Word, or the authority they have over demons and illnesses. “These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons… they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:17 NIV). If you’ve never received good Biblical teaching in this area, you may not know the power you already have in Christ.
Why are some healed and some aren’t?
Why??
I don’t know.
But two thoughts come to mind.
One, DO NOT LOSE HOPE AND GIVE UP. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8 NIV). Jesus tells us EVERYONE who asks receives. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking on Jesus’s door.
Two, GOD IS WITH YOU. You are not left alone with the misery. “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV) I can’t tell you when, where, or how the healing will come, but I know the One who does the healing is faithful to us as we wait.
I leave you with one final thought: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13 NIV)
God,
Today we pray in the name of Jesus for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing to be upon those who are suffering. We pray they will not lose faith but will continue to seek and ask you for healing and transformation. We pray that you would grow their faith and the faith of their loved ones as they wait, and that they would know Holy Spirit’s omnipresence and your peace. May they not be afraid or discouraged, but be filled with your hope, joy, and peace as they trust in you. AMEN.
Matthew 8 (NIV):
Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy
8 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy[a] came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
The Faith of the Centurion
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
Jesus Heals Many
14 When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”[b]
The Cost of Following Jesus
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Jesus Calms the Storm
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
Jesus Restores Two Demon-Possessed Men
28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes,[c] two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”
30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.31 The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
32 He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.
Mark 2:1-12 NIV:
Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man
2 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”