Last week there was a letter to the editor responding to "God Not Needed". From what she wrote and how she said it, I have no doubt she is a very, very sweet and dear woman with the best of intentions.
However, the author asked a question that made me cough up my coffee. The author of the letter she was responding to had prayed and sought God's healing, but doesn't appear to have received an answer to those prayers. In response, she asks, "Were you praying in faith?" and then goes on to imply that we can make God do anything we wish, so long as we have even a touch of faith.
Nothing could be further from the truth, and I hope everyone knows it. The night Jesus was betrayed, he was praying at Gethsemane. He implored his Father to "let this cup pass", he did not want to die. But he followed his request with, "yet not as I will, but as You will." God has a plan, and we cannot be so bold as to think we have the right to change it because we don't want to get sick, die or lose a loved one. We must have faith, but it must be in the plan that God has for us ... his perfect plan. Even Jesus was not above God's perfect plan.
It is not our faith or lack thereof that determines our health. Even C.S. Lewis, an author I highly recommend, struggled with his faith ... and because of that struggle, became stronger in Christ.
I would also recommend reading Hebrews 11 where the entire chapter is devoted to men and women who would make any of us (including the two-time cancer surviving author) pale in comparison. Hebrews 11 closes the chapter saying, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel and the prophets "...were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."
Keep the faith. God is good, and let his will be done, not ours.
