Remarks Which Do Not Heal

When the topic of healing comes up, inevitably I hear of hearts hurt by amazingly insensitive words. If you or someone you love has been dumped-on in this way, would you please allow me to humbly and sincerely ask your forgiveness on behalf of those who hurt you? They may have been immature, arrogant, untaught or merely thoughtless, but I think their words have left some pretty deep scars in a lot of people. And those scars have not gone away. Please forgive us in the name of Jesus.

Here’s my short list of Words Which Do Not Heal, working our way down:

6. You haven’t received your healing because you don’t: speak in tongues, read your Bible or pray enough, go to church, say a sufficient number of faith confessions, go to the right church, study a particular teaching, go to a really anointed faith healer (as opposed, of course, to your own pastor who clearly has no anointing whatsoever or you would have gotten it by now) – OR ANY OTHER FORMULA.

Healing is based on relationship, you and your Healer are unique persons. What worked for Aunt Suzy may leave you cold. It’s like bringing a sex manual to bed with your spouse – not that any of us can’t afford to learn something new once in a while, but the vast majority of time will be from your heart, not following step by step diagrams.

5. You are sick (or your husband died, or you had a miscarriage) because you are in sin.

Although I do believe sickness arises from the general presence of sin in a fallen world, unfortunately some people leap with the speed of light from that premise, to speculating as to what sin YOU must have committed to cause THIS illness. This is devastatingly hurtful, inappropriate, and quite frankly, none of my business to comment on another person’s walk with God.

4. God only heals those who are good enough.

Well, then we are in deep tabouli, because I personally know dozens of incredibly Godly saints who suffer from illness. So do you. We must be talking about a league of super-sanctification here that is pretty much out of reach for the rest of us normal folks who yell at our kids once in a while. Fortunately, wrong.

3. God will heal you if you stop taking your medicine.

This is just plain irresponsible. I’ve heard of mature individuals who felt specifically led to not pursue treatment. But God told them so directly, not their neighbor’s cousin’s hairdresser, and they felt a deep assurance and peace in that course of action, not motivated by fear of surgery or high medical bills. Unless God rents a skywriter to instruct you otherwise, please, follow whatever treatments you and your medical providers agree are best for you.

(And, speaking as a professional, it’s always a great idea to check with your health plan to see what’s covered – don’t assume.)

2. God took your (child, wife, brother) because He needed another flower in His garden (singer for His choir, player for His team, etc.)

Well, God, wouldja please go grab a daisy somewhere else!! This reduces the Almighty to the level of the greedy neighbor (in Nathan’s confrontive tale to David regarding Bathsheba) who snatches the poor man’s only sheep instead of taking from his own ample herd. At bare minimum, find a more gracefully-worded way to say, “I have no idea why this happened.”

And finally, drum roll please as we scrape the very bottom of the below-the-belt barrel . . .

1. You didn’t get healed because you didn’t have enough faith.

Can I just say, “Wrong!” To each has been given a measure of faith – presumably enough for what God knew we would face. I believe each person has plenty of faith.

Now, even a casual reading of the Gospels will convince you that faith is important to healing. It’s mentioned or implied in something like 19 out of 24 healing accounts (numbers off the top of my head, not strictly accurate.) But it’s not something we have to strive for, whip up, or try to climb another notch on the faith ladder to get our healing.

Mustard seed, people, not ostrich egg.

The clincher is, I don’t see Jesus or the apostles ever rebuking a suffering individual for not having faith. However, I do see him rebuking those attempting to minister healing , and of course an entire community is noted because the Son of God himself couldn’t get past the damper their unbelief put on his anointing.

But these are very different from blaming an individual for not receiving healing due to insufficient faith. Not Biblical. Not kind. Not true.


Well, did I manage to quote your personal not-so-favorite? Perhaps you would like to add to this list. I think it’s important to clear the table by stating some of the things I do not believe about healing – nor do you.

So what do I see as causes for people not receiving healing?

I’ll write that in a future blog . . .