When Pigs Fly預覽

Miracles of Healing

Have you ever heard about or even experienced a miraculous healing? It’s a wonderful thing. Just when the worst is inevitable, a healing makes the best possible. 

From Elijah, to Jesus, to Peter, to Paul—miracles of healing are all throughout the Bible. In fact, a recent Barna study reported 66% of Americans believe God still supernaturally heals people. Yet, when it comes to physical, mental, or emotional illness in our own lives, it gets harder to believe, doesn’t it?

When God doesn’t heal everyone every time, it’s tempting to wonder if He’ll heal anyone anytime. And when God doesn’t heal someone who’s close to us, it’s too easy to feel like God isn’t close to us, He doesn’t care, or maybe He’s not even real.

Then, there are the religious, merciless explanations that can make all this worse. Maybe you’ve heard people don’t get a miracle because they didn’t pray the right kind of prayer, because God’s judging some mysterious hidden sin, or because they didn’t get their faith cranked up high enough. Yes, following Jesus does require faith, we should get rid of sin, and pray boldly. However, the real problem with these explanations is they suggest God is some supernatural soda machine that will vend healing water if we figure out the secret code and press all His buttons just right. 

So what, then? Stop praying for healing? No. James says we should call for believers to pray when we’re sick. Jesus asks us to have faith like a child. What do children do? They tend to believe and not doubt, which happens to be something else James says. What do kids do when they really want something? They ask, seek, and knock—more words from Jesus.

Maybe there’s another miracle at work when we trust God with enough childlike faith to ask Him for healing. Life.Church’s pastor, Craig Groeschel, often says, “Prayer doesn’t always change your circumstances, but it will always change you.” In Philippians 4:6-7, Eugene Peterson’s Message version translates Paul’s words: “Let petitions and praises shape your worries in prayers … It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

God’s working a lasting miracle in you. It’s one that displaces your need to control outcomes. Like Peter said, by His wounds we have been healed. You may not always get the physical healing you ask for, but as you place Jesus at the center, you accept the spiritual healing you need. And that is a wonderful thing.

Pray: God, I struggle with doubt sometimes, but I’m still asking You to do another miracle. Will You help me to trust You with faith like a child? Will You displace worry, control, and shame at the center of my life?