God prioritizes your spiritual healing over physical healing because a relationship with him is what you truly need more than anything. Your suffering draws you closer to him.
Visit joniradio.org for your free copy of the pamphlet "Where's My Miracle?"
When it comes to physical healing, God’s got his priorities.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and, oh, I certainly learned his priorities when I sought him for healing, about my quadriplegia. When I first broke my neck, back when I was first injured, I searched the Bible for what I thought were guarantees of miraculous healing. Like in John 15:7 where Jesus says, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." To me, that sounded like a promise, a guarantee: “ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” And so, I did just that. I asked for God to raise me up out of this wheelchair. I fasted, I prayed, I confessed sins, I exercised faith, I believed. Yet after many months of doing this, still, my legs and my hands remained paralyzed. So, I went back to the Bible – was I missing something here? And I asked God to show me what I was doing wrong. Why wasn’t he – according to John 15 – granting me my wish? Well, I dived deeper into his Word to learn more. And I came across the words of Jesus in Matthew 18. Right in the middle of his healing ministry, right when he was curing people of their withered hands and paralyzed feet and blind eyes, Jesus says this, he says: "If [that] hand or… foot [of yours] causes you to sin, cut it off… throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out… throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire."
I read all of that, and it hit me. Jesus was teaching that being healed from sin is far, far more important than being healed of physical ailments. And the more I read, the more I realized that Christ’s miracles during his time on earth, they weren’t so much intended to bring physical healing. I mean, these amazing miracles actually proved to onlookers that Jesus was who he was claiming to be: the Son of God who has power over sin, first, and then, all of sin’s results, including disease and blindness, paralysis, and more. And his miracles over such things were his way of validating his claims as Messiah – you know, arousing the world to listen up and hear the message of salvation!
And I cannot begin to describe how much all that meant to me. Jesus knew that what I really needed much more than getting free of this wheelchair; I needed him. I needed to see my suffering as a tool through which I could get rid of resentment, or a complaining spirit, or laziness, or bitterness, or doubts and fears; my suffering was going to force me to get rid of these things and thereby be drawn closer to Christ. God knew that my paralysis was going to wake me up every morning needing him and needing him desperately. And if I were on my feet, I just don’t think I would require the help of my Savior as earnestly as I do in this wheelchair.
God prioritizes your spiritual healing over your physical healing – he allows your afflictions so that you might get the focus off yourself and what you think you need and understand that Christ is the true source of everything you need. Now I realize you still may have questions, especially if you’re asking God to heal you of something big, and if that’s you, I want you to go right away to joniradio.org and ask for your free copy of my pamphlet “Where’s My Miracle?” In it, I share much more on this topic. So ask for my pamphlet today at joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends