What have you been convicted by lately?

On Thursday, two weeks ago or so, I went up for a frisbee and collided with someone else, with their knee slamming into my thigh. I walked it off and finished out the game, but the next day I was in a bit of pain. "No worries, just a bruise" I thought and I figured I'd just walk it off.

That continued for a week and a half, each day the pain was just continual. It was always at a "walk it off" stage, but it just refused to be walked off.

All the while, my prayers were continually, "God heal me....if it is your will."

But then a few things all sort of came together that really convicted me -

1) My pastor gave a sermon on biblical healing. Jesus and the leper in

12While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.^[a] And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." 13And Jesus^[b] stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him. 14And he charged him to tell no one, but "go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them."

He pointed out that this broken world isn't meant for us. That God does do healings. God does desire to rescue us, and will ultimately do so in glorified bodies. To top it off, he pointed out that healing was a sign of the Kingdom of Heaven to come.

2) I read an article by Vincent Cheung on healing and unbelief, where he quotes an author who remarks on how often we lack faith when it comes to healing. Do we think that God cannot or does not want to please his children?

3) And finally, I was reminded of that passage in Scripture:

24And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.^[g] And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25But immediately a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27And he said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 28But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29And he said to her, "For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter." 30And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

And I was just blown away. This woman wouldn't take "no" for an answer, even willingly accepting Christ's rebuke that she was a dog if he would heal her daughter.

Those three together really just rebuked me. Why didn't I believe that God would heal His people? Did I believe he lacked the power? Or the desire?

Simply put, I wanted a way out, a "just in case" because I didn't actually believe God's promises. Now, given, there are solid biblical reasons that God does not heal. We have the example of Paul and his thorn in the side. We have the fact that Jesus makes clear that the blessing is only for some (), but why was I so doubtful that the blessing didn't apply to me?

I do not have, because I do not ask.



16Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.