To Heal or Not to Heal?

September 10

To Heal or Not to Heal by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

“And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” II Corinthians 12:9

God's grace is sufficient for us. Grace in general terms is favor. It is what God favors us with, what He gives to us. It can include spiritual gifts or physical things that He provides. By His grace, we have food to eat every day, we have clothes to wear, and we have a roof over our heads or cars to drive. By His grace, we have salvation. By His grace, we have the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Paul considered his "thorn in the flesh" to be part of God's grace, a hard thing to say. How could he say that an affliction that God allowed could be part of His grace toward him?

Because with an infirmity, whatever it happened to be, God balanced out for Paul the revelations that he had received, so that he would not become big-headed and sin presumptuously, thereby losing his sense of reliance upon the Lord.

So Paul says, "I'm content being afflicted, because I know that God's grace is sufficient for me. This affliction is good for me, helping me to walk in total reliance upon the Christ who saved me."

We have a hard time thinking this way. We consider this sort of affliction to be evil, but Paul turns that on its head, saying, "No, it is good, because with this affliction, I am weak, and because I am weak, then I don't get the big head. Then Christ can work in and through me, and the work gets done."

So he was content.

Should we then presume that all affliction is for our good, that Jesus doesn’t want to heal our ailments but rather have us bear them graciously?

Perhaps not.

Perhaps as with all things there is a balance.

The answer is not black or white but dependent upon the circumstances and dependent upon what the LORD wants to accomplish through them.

Otherwise, why did HE bear those stripes upon HIS back? The WORD says that it is by those stripes that we are healed.

We should always stand on HIS word but allow HIM the latitude of working out the fulfillment of HIS WORD in the way that best suits HIS purposes.