Do you not see the good in your lives? Open your eyes! It is there! Look for it! It is promised by God. Maybe it is more a matter of not getting what YOU want as opposed to what GOD wants? If you could receive crohn’s disease and live in pain for 20 years on earth, wouldn’t that be an easy trade to make for the conforming to the image of God and eternal life?
I have had several prophecies that I would be healed, I’ve had hands laid upon me, and been anointed with oil by the elders of my church. There is so much prayer, yet I am still sick. An example of an EMAIL I received from a Christian brother said:
Sometimes when I pray for someone who is ill...God tells me that he is going
to heal that person. And today after you replied to my e-mail I prayed for you and The Lord told me that he was going to heal you.
My heart wants to leap and say “Praise the Lord” once again – my head says “you’ve heard this before – maybe it is that ‘someday in the next age’ when you will be well”. Do not misunderstand – I have a solid relationship with God and my faith remained strong throughout. But I also know that some people who have a wonderful relationship with God are NOT healed for reasons I cannot explain. I had made several relationships with people who were great Christians, yet suffered chronic painful lives. God only knows the reasons.
Right around this time, I was informed by my boss that I was on the “short list” for layoffs. He felt I would not be around long. He even offered to send my résumé to a company we consulted for in hopes they could use me. Great. Here I am, the sole bread-winner to my wife and 5 kids, in pain, desperately needing medical insurance, and I am going to lose my job? It is at these times that we just look to the sky and say “Lord, it’s all yours!”
Later that month, I got a call from my wife on the cell phone while I was on a business trip in the other direction. She had taken our 14 year-old van and our 5 kids to visit her sister in Louisville. Somewhere on I-75 south of Cincinnati, the engine died. A county mounty (who turned out to be an angel in disguise) stopped minutes later. The engine would not turn over. He called a tow truck. They put 2 kids in the tow truck (against the rules), 3 kids in the back of the police cruiser, moved radios and equipment from the cruiser passenger seat to the trunk (against the rules), and put my wife in the front seat (also, against the rules) – and followed the tow truck to a Pep Boys. It took only a few minutes for the diagnosis – thrown a rod through the oil pan. It needs an engine.
My wife’s sister is 8 ½ months pregnant and cannot get them. My wife calls around looking for a 6-passenger vehicle to rent – none available anywhere in Cincinnati. I start calling around and find one last 15-passenger van available for that afternoon only. I get my tools and the van and head 150 miles south to rescue my family. I salvage the radio, jack, and that’s about all – the van gets hauled away as junk. We now do not have a vehicle to put our kids in, I hurt everywhere, and have to drive yet another 150 miles home. Spent a lot of time looking at the sky on that ride, hoping Jesus would just come and pluck us up right there and then. Ended up driving 700 miles that day. It does not get any lower than that.
That was all in the spring of 2001. Since then I have survived 5 rounds of layoffs and am still employed by that same company with the constant threat of being laid off. The Lord blessed us with a new van. While I am still in chronic pain, I do believe I will be healed here on this earth and in my lifetime. God gives us just what we need when we need it – no more, no less. And thank God he does not always give us what we want, but gives us what we need looking from HIS perspective. As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. I am a witness to the great things God has done, both in my life and through the lives of my extended family. I am a witness to the glory of God.
Lord, thank you for my brothers and sisters. Thank you for their witness and faithfulness. Thank you for your Love and your unending faithfulness, especially when we are not faithful. All we ask in our lives is that your will be done, through us, this day and forevermore! We pray in the name of Jesus! Amen!