Author: God uses miracles when they help someone see Him

An author presents the interesting idea that God does answer our prayers, but only when they will help someone see Him for the first time, or grow in faith.

Tamyra Horst writes for Women of Spirit Magazine:

Last year I began praying for the healing of two young people, each battling cancer. I pleaded with God. I claimed Scripture. I fasted. I asked others to pray. I truly believed that God would heal them.

Both died within a few weeks of each other.

I deluged God with questions: ‘Does it matter if I pray? Why do You heal sometimes and not others? Why bother praying for people if it rarely seems to make any difference? Why do You answer prayers for lost keys but not lost health?’

I wanted to understand. To continue to pray, believing that it made a difference.

So I went searching for answers.

Tamyra turns to the Bible for answers, and finds them in Scripture.

Can our prayers make a difference?

God promised that they would: “The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:15). “And these signs will accompany those who believe: . . . they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:17, 18). When Jesus sent out the 12 disciples, He told them to not only go out and preach the gospel but heal the sick (Matthew 10:7, 8). Healing is even listed as a spiritual gift (see 1 Corinthians 12:9).

If Jesus commissioned His disciples (us) to preach the gospel and heal, if the Spirit gives healing as a gift, and if God promises to answer our prayers, then why do we too often feel like Catherine Marshall, who said, “Persistent prayer, using all the faith I could muster, had resulted in, well, nothing?”

The truth may be that God does answer, but it doesn’t look like the answer we wanted.

Too often we want miracles. Sudden healing. Life, when death seems inevitable. No scars or struggles. No pain.

It appears that God tended to use miracles when they would enable people to recognize Him in a way that they hadn’t before. The man at the pool believed that healing was hopeless; he learned that God loves the hopeless. The woman had tried everything else; she found God to be everything she needed. Peter needed more than healing; he needed to learn to trust God’s grace and strength instead of his own.

Sometimes the miracle isn’t healing; it’s learning to trust God when healing doesn’t come.

It’s an interesting proposition. But how does Tamyra reconcile God deciding not to answer a prayer, when He said He would?

God tells us to pray for healing. Promises to answer. Does answer. But His answers may not always look the way we want them to. People will still die. (All of us will die until He comes.) Children will have to battle chemotherapy and radiation. Loved ones will forget who we are and the moments we’ve shared together. Many times it will appear so unfair;why does God answer other prayers and not this one? Why do people who live healthy and good lives get ill? We may seem to have more questions than answers.

We have to remember that we live in a sinful world in which an enemy seeks to destroy us. He?ll do that through whatever means he can?illness, cancer, pain, discouragement, doubt, busyness. Yet God promises to work all things to good for His children. Like Joseph, we can say, “You meant this for evil, but God used it for good” (Genesis 50:20).

I’m not convinced, Tamyra. While God can do whatever He wants for whatever purpose He wants, this sounds like a cop-out to me.

It sounds like God hasn’t answered your prayers, so you are justifying His decision to ignore your prayers, even when He promised to not just answer but fulfill the prayers of the faithful.

If He promised to fulfill the prayers of the faithful but doesn’t answer yours, why could that be?

Would it make a difference? Even though I didn’t want to, I questioned.

Ah.