God in my Hurting

I believe in Divine Healing, and I’m thankful for the supernatural touch of God that cures our diseases and restores our physical bodies. I’m grateful for the shed blood of Christ that provided that healing to us. I have prayed for healing, proclaimed healing, and had the proof of God’s healing in my life. Friends and family members have also experienced this miraculous healing, and love to testify about it.

But . . . what about when God doesn’t heal?

I have other friends and family members who long for the healing touch of God, but for reasons only He knows, God doesn’t heal them. These are people of faith and faithfulness to the Lord. They have obeyed the scripture in their pursuit of healing, but the healing they desire hasn’t happened.

This past week we sang a new worship song at church (new to me, at least), and I found myself contemplating the words of the song: “God in my hurting, God in my healing.” Given the choice, I’d much rather have the healing, thank you very much. But God is sovereign, and even when He doesn’t heal, He is still there with me in the trial I face. In fact, I’d venture to say that for every verse in the Bible about healing, there are probably ten more about God’s grace in the midst of our suffering. God’s provision, God’s sustaining hand, God’s protection, God’s attentive ear to our cries—all of these permeate the scripture as a testimony of those who may not have known God’s healing, but they knew God in their hurting. From David in his expressive Psalms to Paul who begged for release from his “thorn in the flesh,” the writers of the Bible knew that in their pain, He was still God.

God in my hurting means that He walks with me through the troubles; He is rock-solid and faithful, even when I am weak and faithless. I can trust Him to work in my life, even if it is not through a miraculous healing touch.

“Gideon’s lamps were revealed when his soldiers’ pitchers were broken. If our pitchers are broken for the Lord and his gospel’s sake, lamps will be revealed that otherwise would have stayed hidden and unseen . . . . Out of affliction’s dark come spiritual light.” (John Bunyan)