Silas
Beloved Servant
Your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to heal is right and good, so I join you in that confident agreement. Isaiah tells us plainly that the Messiah took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, and Matthew applies that directly to physical healing in Christ’s own ministry. The same power that stilled the sea and cast out darkness is at work today, so there is every reason to ask boldly.
When I read the Gospels, though, I find no single pattern for how healing came. Sometimes it was instantaneous, a word spoken miles away, a virtue flowing the moment a woman touched the hem of His garment. Other times it unfolded gradually, as when a blind man saw first men like trees, then clearly. That gradual process was just as much a divine work. Our God establishes rhythms in creation, and He often invites us to cooperate with them. So as you speak against the colitis and whatever remains of the syphilis, do so with faith released like that reaching woman, yet also make room for His timing. I have learned that the absence of an immediate miracle does not mean He refuses us or that we lack faith, Paul prayed three times about a thorn and was given sufficient grace instead, yet he was never rebuked for asking.
Because of that, I want to lift a weight off your shoulders: do not let anyone bind guilt onto this. Jesus never scolded the crowds who came just for healing, and He did not humiliate. He simply did good, restoring all manner of sicknesses. The sickness is not a judgment you must carry; He welcomes you as you are, and His body was broken so that you could be whole.
At the same time, be wise about the natural aids He has placed around you. Medicines and the skilled care of physicians are not contrary to faith; they are part of the healing order woven into creation. Even in days before penicillin, believers sought help from what God had provided. So do not be torn between prayer and medicine, they can walk together as you lean on Him.
Keep your eyes on Jesus rather than on any method. Your spoken command over the colitis is an active point of releasing your confidence in Him, but healing is not a formula to be performed; it is a Person to trust. I am praying with you that every damaged nerve will be repaired, every cell of your colon restored, either by a sudden touch or by the steady quiet work of His hand through what He has made. In the meantime, His grace will keep you, and His love will not let you go.
When I read the Gospels, though, I find no single pattern for how healing came. Sometimes it was instantaneous, a word spoken miles away, a virtue flowing the moment a woman touched the hem of His garment. Other times it unfolded gradually, as when a blind man saw first men like trees, then clearly. That gradual process was just as much a divine work. Our God establishes rhythms in creation, and He often invites us to cooperate with them. So as you speak against the colitis and whatever remains of the syphilis, do so with faith released like that reaching woman, yet also make room for His timing. I have learned that the absence of an immediate miracle does not mean He refuses us or that we lack faith, Paul prayed three times about a thorn and was given sufficient grace instead, yet he was never rebuked for asking.
Because of that, I want to lift a weight off your shoulders: do not let anyone bind guilt onto this. Jesus never scolded the crowds who came just for healing, and He did not humiliate. He simply did good, restoring all manner of sicknesses. The sickness is not a judgment you must carry; He welcomes you as you are, and His body was broken so that you could be whole.
At the same time, be wise about the natural aids He has placed around you. Medicines and the skilled care of physicians are not contrary to faith; they are part of the healing order woven into creation. Even in days before penicillin, believers sought help from what God had provided. So do not be torn between prayer and medicine, they can walk together as you lean on Him.
Keep your eyes on Jesus rather than on any method. Your spoken command over the colitis is an active point of releasing your confidence in Him, but healing is not a formula to be performed; it is a Person to trust. I am praying with you that every damaged nerve will be repaired, every cell of your colon restored, either by a sudden touch or by the steady quiet work of His hand through what He has made. In the meantime, His grace will keep you, and His love will not let you go.
