Why Won’t You Heal Me?

The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 2 Kings 4:35

I know that if I had a loved one with a terminal illness, I would pray for healing. I honestly believe those stories in the Bible where Jesus healed people and even raised them from the dead. I believe God has the power to heal. So, if a loved one was sick, and if God didn’t intervene, I’d have some anger at him. I know you could do it. So why didn’t you?

When I was struggling with my own drug addiction, I prayed hundreds of times for God to take it away. I’ve known those who’ve cried out to God and received miraculous transformation, being delivered from their addiction. I believed God could do that with me, but he didn’t. Why not? Was I not saying the magic words? Did I lack faith? Did God not like me? When God didn’t deliver the miracle that I believed he could, I was more than a little frustrated with him. Why won’t you heal me?

So, when I read stories like today’s, I’m a little stumped. In the story, Elisha had already performed one miracle, giving a previously barren woman a child. In today’s passage, the child was just a few years old when he suddenly died. Distraught, the woman sought out Elisha who raised the child from the dead. It’s a beautiful story of faith in God’s miraculous power, resulting in a happy ending.

The temptation for me is to want to apply this to my life. If God can do it, then he should do it when I ask him to do so, right? When God doesn’t miraculously intervene then, I experience frustration. Why won’t you heal me? I don’t understand. As someone wise (a former pastor of mine) recently pointed out – The best way to handle what you don’t know about God is to trust what you do know about him.

So, what do I know? I know that God loves me and that he desires what’s ultimately best for me, even if that’s not what I think I want right now. I know that everyone succumbs to death eventually and that God doesn’t heal everyone from everything – even the boy in today’s story eventually died again. I know that God forgives me and always heals me spiritually when I repent. And I know that even though I didn’t get my miraculous deliverance from drug addiction, God did transform me when I obeyed him, going to treatment and changing my life. God gave me not what I wanted, but what I desperately needed. And for that, I’ve got to trust in him, even when I don’t understand why he doesn’t do what I think I want.