Food for Thought
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This is a column by Rev John Sterrett, who is the Church of Scotland minister at St Andrew's, Golspie.
It sometimes seems like Jesus went around healing people willy-nilly.
He often said to people: “Your faith has made you well.” A lot of people I’ve known have concluded that because he said this, they haven’t experienced healing from a physical condition they’ve prayed for because they don’t have enough faith.
While I think it does often take faith to experience healing, I’m not sure those who think they don’t have enough faith won’t or can’t experience healing.
After all, Jesus said: “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.” (Matthew 17:20). Jesus is speaking here about the sincerity, rather than the size, of a person’s faith.
Why, then, aren’t more people healed? While I don’t have a complete answer to that question, I can tell you what I’ve experienced. Once I visited two different women within a short space of time. I chatted with the first lady in her sitting room for a while and we talked about the usual things – the weather, her relatives and her health.
She had a health problem that often caused her discomfort, so I briefly prayed and asked God to heal her. When I finished she said: “That was nice”, and continued to make polite conversation for a little while before I left.
I remember faintly wondering if she thought the prayer had been worthwhile at all. Some people seem to be just trying to be polite when they consent to a request for prayer. That’s fair enough.
A day or two later I visited another lady who was with her husband in her sitting room. They invited me in and I could immediately feel a strange, but comfortable fourth presence in the room- it seemed like someone else, but someone we could not see.
The wife explained that she had a health problem about which both she and her husband were very concerned. I asked if they would mind if I prayed for her. “Please!” they both said. So I prayed for her healing.
When I was finished we continued our visit and chatted for a while and had tea. Throughout all that time and up until the time I got up to leave I could still sense this other pleasant, calm, “presence”.
Two weeks later the second lady was completely healed from her condition. The first lady, however, still struggles with her health problem, even years later.
When I told a minister friend of mine about the difference between the two ladies’ stories. he pointed out that Luke chapter five tells the story about how Jesus healed a paralysed man. In verse 17 it says: “And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick.”
Often, if God is going to bless someone, whether through healing or in some other way, He will let his presence be known. But you have to want to take advantage of this. He has to feel welcome in your life at that moment. Only if you welcome His presence you are likely to experience His power.
Sometimes God wants to heal people and sometimes He doesn’t. He may want to do something else. But if he doesn’t feel welcome, He may politely just leave. In that case, nothing will happen.
Whatever the state of your health or your needs, ask yourself seriously: “Does God feel welcome in my life?” Your answer to that question could make all the difference.
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