“You took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague." (Mark 5:34 MSG)
When someone has cancer, every available treatment is sought out before we resort to palliative care. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and all the accompanying side effects are painful and draining. Yet patients and their families willingly go through all sorts of suffering, because they want to be healed. When the cancer has advanced beyond medical care, patients may ask to be given opioid drugs to relieve their pain.
If given the choice between pain relief and healing, most of us would want healing for ourselves and our loved ones. Yet our prayers are more often focused on an immediate end to suffering. This is because we confuse helplessness with hopelessness. We may be helpless, but God is not. Thus, there is hope in every situation, even when we feel powerless.
Faith involves risk. We must step out without knowing all the details ahead of time. We don’t know when, where, or how God will work. But we know He is in control. We can depend on Him. The outcome may not match our expectations; our healing may not be in the physical realm. Yet we wait in confidence. We know that everything will be made whole according to His plan and timing.
Lord, you have heard our groans of helplessness. You have promised to rise up and rescue us. Your promises are pure like silver refined in a furnace. Therefore, we know you will protect us. (Paraphrased from Ps.12:5-7)
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