Sometimes God doesn’t heal. A person of sincere faith prays and yet God chooses not to heal, but rather allows us to live with, suffer through and even die from a sickness and injury. Why does God do this? I don’t know, I wish I did but I don’t.
As I read about Paul’s non-healing, I wondered about this whole issue again. One question that this passage seemed to answer for me is this, “Can God receive honor and glory when He doesn’t heal?”
Well, with the apostle Paul as an example, the answer is apparently, YES.
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me (7-9).
In his weakness, inadequacy, and non-healing, Paul boasts in Jesus whose power becomes obvious in and through Paul. Since it cannot possibly be Paul himself who accomplished what he does, it is obviously God though Paul who gives the strength, wisdom and power for Paul to do what he does. So Paul points people to God. To GOD be the glory!
God gets the glory when we give God the glory. The question that erupts in my thoughts is this, “Do I give God the glory in good times and in bad? Do I point to Jesus as the one who gets me through the tough times or do I take the honor for myself or whine and complain against God?”
O, God, forgive me. There are times I whine and complain rather than seeing Your hand giving me strength in a hard time. I complain. Why can’t my life be easy???? Forgive me, please.
And forgive me, too, when I usurp Your rightful place and seek to take the glory when it is You who deserves it.
O, God, may Your grace be sufficient for me. Amen.
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