Honoring God in Suffering

Promoters of the so-called positive confession ideology suggest that our words have supernatural power to change circumstances and shape destinies. Assuming that because every sin, sickness, disease, sorrow, and grief was laid on Jesus (Isaiah 53:3–5), those preachers encourage their audiences to make this confession: “Today I am forgiven, healed, healthy, and well.” To them, only a lack of faith can prevent someone from being physically healed. On August 2, 1982, the American theologian and philosopher Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984) penned a consoling letter to a pastor whose wife, Sharon, had multiple sclerosis. Schaeffer wrote, I do believe that at times the Lord gives direct healing, and I have seen something of this in my own ministry through the years.

This is surely to the praise of the Lord, and we thank Him.

But there is the constant, pernicious danger of this slipping into the idea that if a person is a true believer and has sufficient faith, he will always be healed.

This is clearly not what the Bible teaches.

The New Testament has various places that show conclusively that not all of the Christians in that day were healed. What this idea does is to forget that God is not a computer, but a personal Heavenly Father who must be allowed to answer in His personal and infinite loving wisdom. I have seen some of God’s most faithful and loving people wiped out by people telling them that if they are not cured, it is because of lack of spirituality or a lack of prayer. This sometimes certainly is the case, but to tell people who have an acute illness that is always the case is often to heap guilt on their head when they certainly do not need this. . . . There is nothing more cruel than a group of people pouring guilt on someone who is ill just when they do not need it.

The positive confession teaching selfishly offers a crown without a cross (Matthew 16:24). In contrast, the apostle Paul patiently endured the thorn in his flesh and took pleasure in his infirmities (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).

And the apostle Peter encourages us to rejoice in being partakers of Christ’s sufferings (1 Peter 4:13). Let us allow God to be God in our lives and accept His plans for us.