Healing

Lately I have really been wrestling with the idea that God still heals people today. Part of the problem is that I have never seen it. Instead, I have seen people pleading, begging, praying to God for healing. And believing that He will do so. And then he doesn't. When I was pregnant with our daughter (Faith), who had a terminal condition, I really didn't expect God to heal her. Maybe I didn't believe he would. I definitely don't have the spiritual gift of faith. But Shiloh does. And he believed that God was going to heal or her. He prayed earnestly for that. No healing there. But I was okay with that at the time.

But lately, I am not really okay with God choosing not to heal people, in particular babies. Lately I have had way to many people cross my path that have prayed for healing and not gotten it. And so not only am I struggling with this whole healing thing, I am a bit mad a God. I think one of the instigators of my whole healing struggle was when I heard about Jud. I don't know Jud's family, but one of my good friends (Keri) does. Here is an exerpt from Jud's caringbridge site:

"Call me 'Jud the Stud.' I was born Christmas Eve '04 & died Nov. 7, '07 at age 2 1/2. Starting May '07, I went from having normal function of my body, to being fully paralyzed, blind, mute, unable to swallow, & more. I had Krabbe disease, a rare, genetic, incurable leukodystrophy.
I am now in the arms of Jesus & remain deeply loved by many!"

I read the updates faithfully as his parents cried out and BELIEVED that God would heal Jud. From all night prayer vigils locally to driving him to Santa Barbara for a special healing service. And in my faithlessness I read the posts and thought, "Sad because God is not going to heal him. I have never seen that happen." And sure enough, Jud suffered and then died. Arghhh! I don't understand. And yet Jud's parents are singing God's praises and declaring his faithfulness despite the fact that their boy was not healed. I guess that is how I was too with baby Faith. God somehow delivers the peace and grace when you need it. And ironically, I can look back at my experience and see God's hand in the whole thing. Felt closer to Him than ever before. Felt his love and tasted his Word like never before. So I am not bitter or angry about my situation with Faith. But I still can not understand how this whole healing thing works.
(And I know the verses Isa 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.)
But come on, Does God only heal in India and Africa because I have heard a few stories of healing from there?

There is a gal from my church who is pregnant with a baby girl who does not have any kidneys. Baby cannot live without kidneys. But she and her husband and praying and believing that their daughter will be healed. Here is an excerpt from their blog:
"We explained that this is all new to us, that we're even venturing outside our home church's doctrine by declaring healing. We explained that Jesus "healed them all." That we believe it's His will to heal all still, and that includes Olive, as He is the "one who changes not." We told them about the scripture in Isaiah (65:20) that speaks of the New Heavens and a New Earth, "Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years..." I told them we were taking this scripture and praying the Lord's prayer for His will to be done one Earth as it is in Heaven.

We told them that, just as we receive our salvation by believing, we receive His promise of healing based on believing, and that is why we are already thanking Him.
Mark 11:24
"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
1 John 5:14-15
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us -whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of him."
I'm not talking about the "name it and claim it" movement that I heard was preached against at last Sunday's service. I'm talking about a promise. I'm talking about a good God."

And while I am so praying for them if I am honest, I do not expect God to heal baby Olive. Where is my faith? But where is my God in all these other instances of faithful people crying out to God for healing?

I wrote most of this post the other night, but was interrupted and did not finish, which is cool. Because tonight I ran into Kim Dunn at church. I had forgotten about her amazing healing stories... of herself. I told her I needed to get together with her to hear them again. I just wish I had known her when it all happened.
I feel kind of like the father of the demon possessed boy in Mark 9:22-24
"But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
‘If you can?' said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Shiloh says a good blog is short and has photos. Well, I definitely don't get any short points so I will throw up some random photos. This one looks like Elijah is casting a demon out of Lydia so I thought it was at least somewhat relevant to the blog. And besides, there are only a few peeps reading this blog anyway...those that checked my profile and found this. And I would love to hear any comments for those of you that have seen some firsthand healing accounts!

And in this pic, it looks like Lydia is demon-possessed when in reality she is just wondering where neighbor Joe is.