I wish you well...

We’ve been praying, of late, for someone who is battling cancer. This is not someone I know well, but it is my understanding that this person does not know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Up until recently he would not acknowledge the existence of God. Up until recently, he did not acknowledge the value of prayer, obviously, because what value can one put on prayer to a ‘God’ who does not exist! And yet, people are praying and he knows it. He is beginning to feel differently about it.

Recently, a group of us were praying for him. Sometimes, I listen to the Holy Spirit while I’m praying. I believe prayer is a two way conversation. As in any relationship, there can’t just be one person who does all the talking and then checks out mentally when the other person is talking. That would not be a healthy, strong, productive relationship. So, sometimes, I listen as well as pray. Today I mostly listened.

While we were praying I had this strong sense that I should pray that this man would KNOW and be flooded with KNOWING that God LOVES him. If one is just beginning to open the door to the possibility that there may, indeed, be a God, then it would be good if he KNEW, without a doubt, that this God LOVES him!

So, I prayed quietly, in my Spirit, while others were also praying, and then went back to listening. As I waited, a verse popped into my head. “If one of you says to him “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?”

I knew in my spirit that these words were referring to healing. I had never thought of it in that sense before. The context of this verse is food and shelter. The context is, actually, an instruction for us to personally, physically, get involved in people’s lives. It’s about ‘intentions vs. actions.’ If our good intentions don’t turn into good actions, then, who do they help? What ‘good’ are the intentions? But today I ‘heard’ God say “this is who I am!”

I had one of those ‘Aha!’ moments.... THIS is God’s heart! "I am the God who meets your physical needs! This is how I love him.” God does not encounter a sick and needy person and say ‘Go, I wish you well’ and NOT meet his needs! Jesus never did this. God does not pat us on the back and say ‘Hey, I hope you know I love you!’ and NOT help us out of the mess we’re in! It is not his character to leave us in our mess! It is not his will to leave us sick, and weak!

God was speaking to me, teaching me, coaching me. In praying that this man would KNOW to the depths of his being that God LOVES him, I was believing that knowing God loves me is more important than God healing me. I keep putting things on a scale: this is more important than that, and that is more important than something else. I’m always doing this, but, God does not put things on a scale. When he saves us, he saves us completely, body, soul, and spirit. God does not say, “I wish you well, I hope you know I love you”, and not heal the heart, the soul, the spirit, and the body! He says, ‘When you get me, you get ALL of me! You get the whole deal!”

All the old revivalists I've read write like this. They never separate God into compartments. When they pray for the LOVE of God to be revealed, they are praying for all of these things: for healing, for deliverance, for freedom, for salvation, for sanctification, for repentance. ALL these things. They never expected one without the other. Their messages are so simple, and they are all inclusive!

If this verse reveals the heart and the nature and the character of God, then what if we turn the question to him? What 'good is it' if our God 'wished us well' and then did nothing about our physical needs? Or, if he convinced us that he 'wished us well,’ and then said 'go, fend for yourself, keep warm and well fed'? Have we separated the ‘love’ of God from the ‘provision’ of God, as if he gives one without the other? Is it OK to do so? Have we adopted the theology that God ‘wishes us well’, but ‘being warm and well fed’ is our responsibility? He saves our spirit for heaven, but the soul and the body part is up to us? Have we adopted the idea that God’s concern for our physical well being is a FAR distant third to our eternal destination and our obedience?

"It’s good enough, if you’ll just sit here beside me,” seems to be the thinking. And, maybe it is ‘good enough’. But is our God the God of ‘good enough’? Or, is he the God of ‘exceedingly and abundantly far above what we could ask or imagine?'

Have we bought the idea that God's 'intentions' are all that matter, even if they never translate into 'action'? What 'good' is that?

I know this raises a lot of questions. I don’t know the answer to a lot of them. Please take your questions to the Spirit of Truth and ask him to teach us his ways, for his name sake, and for the sake of the sick, the hurting, the lost, and the lonely. “May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships...” Franciscan Benediction