A Hope to Cling to

(Of Things Unseen Part 4)

So, here's the deal.  I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in theology or claim I have this all figured out - because I'm not and I don't.  Exploring the idea of sin and it's consequences is not something that can be fully discussed on any blog or in any one sermon.  The only portion of this I hope to try to explore is whether in my case, my illness was the result or a "punishment" of some kind of sin in my life. 

James 5:13-16 - Is anyone among you suffering?  Then he must pray.  Is anyone cheerful?  He is to sing praises.  Is anyone among you sick?  Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.  The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

At first glance, it's easy to see this scripture and conclude that in order to be healed, one must pray with enough faith and it will happen - or in fact that is MUST happen.  I mean it says so right there, doesn't it?  So, how can this be true and yet what happened to Job or the apostle Paul's thorn also be true?  Or, is what the scripture above talking about something more than the first glance take-away? 

For God to be who He says He is, He has to be perfect, without error or mistake, just, and true (and all kinds of other things).  I'm convinced that whenever we find something in the bible that seems to contradict another passage we need to take a deeper look at what's going on and we will find that they don't. 

If anyone in the bible "had enough faith" it would have been the apostle Paul.  Then why was his thorn not removed?  He asked three times to have it taken away but God answered "My grace is sufficient...".  Taking a second look at the James scripture above, I'd like to emphasize the following:  "and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him."  This seems to suggest that the healing that is promised is only if the illness is the result of un-confessed sin in one's life.  Why else would it be mentioned?  We know from the story of Job that Job had done nothing or committed no sin to bring about the pain and suffering he endured.  But Job was very sick, his body full of leprosy.  Yet his friends seemed convinced that he must have done something to "deserve" this and that if he only confessed his sin - he would be healed.  Job knew, though, that he had done nothing wrong.  In many ways, this is what troubled Job; why, when he had done "all the right things" did God allow this to happen to him?   God's answer to Job was a long one but to summarize, He reminded Job that He is the God that created all things and has unlimited power, knowledge, holiness, etc.  He knows so much more than we do and we are to trust what He allows to happen to us because somehow it will be for His glory (which is also always for our greater good). 

So, if Paul and Job both had the faith to be healed, then we know that the James scripture cannot be talking about all instances of sickness.  If that were the case, Paul would have had his thorn removed and Job would not have had to endure the trial for nearly so long.

But, is there a chance that maybe I just don't recognize what my sin was/is and since I haven't confessed it, I'm still sick?  I highly doubt it and I'll explain why.

I have prayed to God asking Him to reveal to me if there was un-confessed sin in my life and if so, what it was because if that was the case, I longed to confess, repent, and be healed.  I prayed this more than once and I know that God would not have remained silent if there was anything because He longs for our repentance and would never hinder it.  I have done my best to search my heart and see if there was something I had done or if there was anything I might have spoken that could have brought about this.  To be obedient to God's word, I did as the scripture says and went before the elder's and had them pray over me with oil in the name of the Lord.  Still, no healing. 

So this leaves me to rest in the idea that    this    must     be.  I need to accept that this is happening because God sees fit and I find I NEED to trust Him because if I couldn't; there would be no hope left.  So I cling to this hope:

(Credit to digitalscrapper.com and Kristin Cronin-Barrow for the art elements I used to make this page.)

...knowing that God's grace will get me through until He someday takes me home. 

I hope you will continue to pray along with me for my continued healing and that God will continue to show Himself to us through this time.  We also pray that He will continue to show us what His plan is for all of this.  If this has to happen, I want to be sure that I am aware of His purpose for this so that this wasn't for nothing.  Thanks for taking the time to explore this with me and if you have any scripture to share regarding this - I welcome it in the comments below.