God Doesn't Always Want to Heal Us

There seem to be two very different concepts of God among Christians.  Some think that God almost always wants us to be comfortable and blessed and healed and prosperous etc.  But others remember that Jesus warned that we would have to suffer and be persecuted for him as Christians.  Some see that persecution and being uncomfortable as a Christian is inevitable, because we live in a fallen world and because Satan is the ruler of this world. 

Some see that God's primary purpose is not for us to always be happy necessarily, but rather to be holy.  If then God has to make us suffer in order to make us more holy, then He will.  The health of our soul is God's ultimate aim, Not our physical comfort. 

Does God always want to heal us?  It depends.  If our pain will draw us closer to God, then no. 
Proverbs 30:9 puts this concept perfectly regarding money, and the same concept goes for healing etc.  "Feed me with the food that is my portion, That I not be full and deny You and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God."  This is EXACTLY how it is with physical healing too.  He is saying "God just give me what I need, because if you give me too much, I might forget about you, and if you give me too little, I might fall into sin and steal." 

It's possible that if we were perfectly physically healthy all the time we would then say "Who is the Lord?" or we could forget about God. We might start to think that we don't need God, because it is our needs that often draw us to God, or make us sprint to God.  It is our pain that draws us closer to God.

The main issue really is in how we view pain and weakness.  According to the world, pain and weakness are always bad.  But according to God, weakness can be good.  Why?  Well in 2 Cor. 12 Paul says, "I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

It is not when we are strong that we are strong; it is when we are weak that we are strong.  Because then we aren't relying on our own strength anymore but on God's strength.  God wants us to be totally dependent on him and not ourselves.  "Lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge God, and He will make your paths straight."  Amen?  So if God can use pain to make us lean on him and not ourselves, He will.

Lastly, Paul says in Phil. 3, "I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead."  Paul seems to say that it is THROUGH participating in Christ's suffering that he will attain to the resurrection from the dead.  He also says in Phil. 2 that Christ was glorified BECAUSE he suffered and became obedient to death on a cross.  In the same way, we have to first suffer before we can be glorified.

Jesus says as Christians we are to "pick up our cross daily."  That is a night and day difference from what many people teach.  People who teach "what our itching ears want to hear."  Things that appeal to our flesh.  But Jesus wants us to suffer in order that we might learn to die to ourselves.  We have to let him replace ourselves.  "Christ in you is the hope of glory."  God cuts us down and grows us back with Christ in our place.  That is the whole process of the Christian life; that is the whole process of sanctification. 

So does God want to bless us?  Yes.  Does he always want to.  No.  It really depends on how much we can HANDLE his blessings.  Are we mature enough to handle them?  Will God bless us with riches and then we will forget about Him?  Possibly.  A lot of people do.  "You cannot love both God and money."  Some people that God blesses with money then start to love money instead of God, sadly.  Will God bless us with perfect health and then we might feel like we don't need him anymore?  Possibly.  This is why God doesn't always give us a perfect life, because it is in the IMPERFECTIONS, the sufferings, the pains of life, that we run to Him.  Amen! 

I hope this all makes sense.  May God give us all eyes to see and ears to hear the full picture and to understand Him fully and what he wants to do in our lives.  Amen.  God bless!