PTM E-UPDATE -- FEBUARY 1, 2010

Does God force us to do his will by cursing us with sickness and rewarding us with health?

Q. Some years ago I was involved in bicycle racing. It took up all my time, including time I should have devoted to God. One night at a Bible study I looked at my friend and said, "I feel in my heart that God is telling me to give up cycling or he is going to get me off the bike himself." It was not a mystical experience, just a deep feeling in my spirit.

Well, I must not have believed it because I kept on racing -- and one day -- bang! I herniated a disk in my back and that was it. The injury was enough to keep me off the bike, but not bad enough to require surgery.

Of course, the minute I realized I was done racing, I remembered that night at Bible study. I went to the Lord in prayer and again the same feeling in my spirit came over me and I knew the Lord said that if I would draw close to him, he would heal me.

I am not quick to get wrapped up in emotional nonsense, but I believe that God is interacting with me. I am drawing close to God as best I can and have been without pain in my back for nearly three years, but the constant irritation and stiffness always reminds that I am in the shape I am in because I didn't heed God to begin with.

Can you provide any insight into what is happening to me?

A. Plain Truth Ministries believes in divine healing – but we do not believe that the healing that God gives is always understood by humans. In negative terms, we do not believe that the Bible teaches us that God will physically heal us once we "stop sinning" -- once we "get within his will" or once we do some other thing that we believe will make God happier with us. Conversely, God does not cause bad things to happen to us to punish us for bad behavior, or to force us to behave better. God's love and compassion for us is not conditional on what we do or don't do.

That being said, adversity may serve as a reminder of how much we need God. It may cause us to reconsider our priorities.

God’s healing is beyond our comprehension, sometimes out of our time limitations, and often not within the limitations and scope we desire. God does not heal only those who are superior Christians, or have special insights, or those who deny themselves in specific ways. God’s healing is certain and sure, but it is far beyond our efforts to quantify and understand.

The process and questions you describe are natural for a believer, given the circumstances. Seeking God is what he desires for us -- for he wants us to know him, and to enjoy an intimate relationship with him. But it is also possible, as you note, to "subjectivize" this experience. God does work with us, he does guide us -- and our own human assumptions and emotions may obscure or distort the pure and clear message God has for us.

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