Faith, Job and When God Stands Idly By

[n david]

Sorry for the length...

I believe God's Word is true.
I believe Jesus walked on earth and healed all diseases.
I believe healing and miracles happen today.

However, I sometimes am frustrated when faith-filled prayers have been prayed and God seemingly stands idly by.

The other day I had a time in my car and walking through a grocery store when I was not so much praying as just talking with God. There are two situations which were weighing heavily on me and since I don't get time alone at home, I used driving and picking up groceries as my alone time to talk with God.

I have a wonderful friend who is a saint among men. We attended Bible School together and after leaving, something happened to him and he began having seizures. For the past 20+ years, he's had seizures. And the past few years they have increased to where not a day goes by that he doesn't have at least one seizure. He's been given all sorts of medication, had all kinds of tests. Recently went to a Mayo Clinic for a battery of tests which appear to be leading to some kind of brain surgery and implant to stop these seizures.

In all of this, my dear friend has remained steadfast and true to God. Looking back over the same 20+ year time span in my life, I am ashamed of what has caused me to lose focus or fail in my walk with God. Yet he hasn't. Prayers have been made by him and hundreds of others. Strength. Healing. A miracle. But no healing or miracle has come. The only thing he has said which could be considered negative is that he feels he is becoming a burden on his family.

I remember Job. How Job was "perfect and upright." How he "feared God, and eschewed evil." And how that, even when he lost his oxen, sheep, camels, servants and children, he remained faithful to God.

And even when the boils came, Job continued to worship. I'll come back to Job in a minute.

My friend is my living example of Job. The seizures have impacted every area of his life. He has been unable to work -- he had an incredible job but can't drive anymore. Most of the time, the seizures are so strong that they are physically, mentally and emotionally draining. He spends hours recovering and can't move around very well. But again, I do not personally know anyone who is more faithful to God or who is more encouraging to others in spite of what he's going through.

I have a family member who has a three month old baby, born with heart defects and other health issues. The past month and a half, the child has been in a children's hospital, hundreds of miles from home, going through specialized surgeries and trying to recover. The mom has been staying with this child, away from her husband and other children, during this time.

Using FB, over 1,800 people have joined from all over the US and around the world. Prayers have been made for this baby to be healed or for a miracle to be done.

The surgeries were successful, but the baby has been struggling with hypertension, breathing issues, high blood pressure and high CO2 levels. One day will bring a good report, the next will bring a request for urgent prayer.

So I'm driving and then walking around talking to God. And I'm frustrated, upset even. I probably looked pretty crazy to people who saw or heard me talking to myself.

Why are there hypocrites in perfect health, but my friend and this baby are not healed?

With all these prayers from hundreds and thousands of people, why is this baby in the hospital fighting for his life and my friend still having seizures?

I talked about Job and all he went through. I reminded God that at some point in Job's life when God stepped in and healed Job and restored to him more than what he had at the beginning.

God may have allowed Job to experience the loss of animals and death of his children and boils on his own flesh -- but there was a time even for Job when God said enough is enough.

At this point, I broke down. "God, if you will hear my prayer, have mercy on my friend and this baby as you did with Job. Honor the faithfulness of my dear friend and this baby's parents and heal them as you did your servant Job."

I believe God's Word is true.

But I am frustrated when God seemingly stands idly by.

[1ofthechosen]

Originally Posted by n david

Sorry for the length...

I believe God's Word is true.
I believe Jesus walked on earth and healed all diseases.
I believe healing and miracles happen today.

However, I sometimes am frustrated when faith-filled prayers have been prayed and God seemingly stands idly by.

The other day I had a time in my car and walking through a grocery store when I was not so much praying as just talking with God. There are two situations which were weighing heavily on me and since I don't get time alone at home, I used driving and picking up groceries as my alone time to talk with God.

I have a wonderful friend who is a saint among men. We attended Bible School together and after leaving, something happened to him and he began having seizures. For the past 20+ years, he's had seizures. And the past few years they have increased to where not a day goes by that he doesn't have at least one seizure. He's been given all sorts of medication, had all kinds of tests. Recently went to a Mayo Clinic for a battery of tests which appear to be leading to some kind of brain surgery and implant to stop these seizures.

In all of this, my dear friend has remained steadfast and true to God. Looking back over the same 20+ year time span in my life, I am ashamed of what has caused me to lose focus or fail in my walk with God. Yet he hasn't. Prayers have been made by him and hundreds of others. Strength. Healing. A miracle. But no healing or miracle has come. The only thing he has said which could be considered negative is that he feels he is becoming a burden on his family.

I remember Job. How Job was "perfect and upright." How he "feared God, and eschewed evil." And how that, even when he lost his oxen, sheep, camels, servants and children, he remained faithful to God.

And even when the boils came, Job continued to worship. I'll come back to Job in a minute.

My friend is my living example of Job. The seizures have impacted every area of his life. He has been unable to work -- he had an incredible job but can't drive anymore. Most of the time, the seizures are so strong that they are physically, mentally and emotionally draining. He spends hours recovering and can't move around very well. But again, I do not personally know anyone who is more faithful to God or who is more encouraging to others in spite of what he's going through.

I have a family member who has a three month old baby, born with heart defects and other health issues. The past month and a half, the child has been in a children's hospital, hundreds of miles from home, going through specialized surgeries and trying to recover. The mom has been staying with this child, away from her husband and other children, during this time.

Using FB, over 1,800 people have joined from all over the US and around the world. Prayers have been made for this baby to be healed or for a miracle to be done.

The surgeries were successful, but the baby has been struggling with hypertension, breathing issues, high blood pressure and high CO2 levels. One day will bring a good report, the next will bring a request for urgent prayer.

So I'm driving and then walking around talking to God. And I'm frustrated, upset even. I probably looked pretty crazy to people who saw or heard me talking to myself.

Why are there hypocrites in perfect health, but my friend and this baby are not healed?

With all these prayers from hundreds and thousands of people, why is this baby in the hospital fighting for his life and my friend still having seizures?

I talked about Job and all he went through. I reminded God that at some point in Job's life when God stepped in and healed Job and restored to him more than what he had at the beginning.

God may have allowed Job to experience the loss of animals and death of his children and boils on his own flesh -- but there was a time even for Job when God said enough is enough.

At this point, I broke down. "God, if you will hear my prayer, have mercy on my friend and this baby as you did with Job. Honor the faithfulness of my dear friend and this baby's parents and heal them as you did your servant Job."

I believe God's Word is true.

But I am frustrated when God seemingly stands idly by.

Nothing happens on God's green earth on accident. Paul didn't want to be blind but he was. But because of that God's grace was sufficient in his weakness. That weakness supplied a river of grace into Paul's life. I'd also be willing to bet your friend experiences God on a level unimaginable even to you. He has a way of balancing things out. With the child all I can say is that is so sad. I can't make sense of it, but I do know this life is not all there is. And God is going to do whats good there. Whatever He does is all part of His plan, and whatever He does is righteous and true!

I am not down playing what you are going through, but God is not ever standing idly by. It all has eternal implications.

[Evang.Benincasa]

I don't have any answers to why God doesn't touch those we think He should touch. Right now, I have a sibling who is 4 years older then me who went home from the hospital to die. The doctors pumped her full of chemo, until she is nothing more than skin and bones. The tumor she has is fatal, and untreatable. They told her this over a year ago, and by their estimates she should of been gone already. But she is now home and signed the papers for them not to resuscitate her, or try to treat her.. But with all my prayers, and the church family's prayers, my sister has to be the lead man in all of this. As her faith be it unto her. Myself and another elder were driving home from one of our house churches, and received a phone call from the grandparents of a little boy in our church family. I told the grandfather we would head straight to the hospital. We arrived in the early morning hours, and the first thing I said to the father of the boy, is that he needed to believe for his son. We all got down around the child's hospital bed, the boy pale white, we prayed. But my prayers were for the father, to trust Jesus Christ. The boy was healed. Later that week, a woman in the room next door with a ill 5 year old, covered in painful lesions. Again, I told the mother that she was to place all her trust in Jesus Christ and Him alone to heal her daughter, we prayed around the girl's hospital bed and she was healed. The mother, the father, their faith as was Jairus' faith was the focal point for the children. I can't judge your friend, or the parents of the infant who is sick. Illness is a personal thing, that me as an outsider to that illness cannot understand what the person is going through. Because I'm not the one with the tumor that is incurable, my sister is. I have been laid at death's door more than once, but I still cannot tell someone I know how they feel, because I'm not them, and they are not me. All I can do is pray. When my youngest daughter was born a brother called me up and told me that God impressed him that my new born would die because what I believed as far as eschatology. My only answer to him was let's pray.

That's all we can do, God is good no matter what the outcome. God is good, He knows what lays ahead of us. God is always good.

Job didn't know why he was afflicted, but he had some religious imbeciles who were there to make his burden just a tad bit heavier. All trying to figure out what bad thing Job did to deserve this. Job started to question as he was worn down by his situation, a grieving wife, and religious idiots he called friends. Yet, the scripture said Job kept his integrity. People go through a lot, and we just can't judge their dark night of the soul, or how their feeling while their reeling. We can sit on the sidelines and encourage and cheer them on, through prayer and sensitive wisdom.

[votivesoul]

There is a degree to God that is knowable, as far as He is willing to reveal Himself. But there are depths to God that are unsearchable. Some, probably even most of His ways are past finding out.

My wife's oldest sister died of breast cancer on my wife's birthday. She was the most anointed, Christ-like person I ever met. God even revealed her to me before we met or ever I saw a picture of her, in a dream, when my wife and I were just beginning to date.

Now, my wife's other sister is dying of breast cancer, with probably less than the rest of the year to live, unless this very new experimental treatment for which she was approved ends up working. She is not saved.

God instantly cured a friend of mine, an old girlfriend, actually, from high school, from before I was saved, when I prayed for her after she told me her cervical cancer was back (I didn't even know she had had cancer; I ran into her accidentally at a gas station one day after not seeing her for nearly five years).

She never once, to me at least, thanked God or gave Him any glory whatsoever, but in fact, railed on Him a few months later and blamed Him for a separate medical condition she discovered she had related to her heart. She is a thriced divorced wiccan last I knew. Her sister, brother in law, and nephew are all right now sitting in county jail for drug trafficking. She could have responded to God's healing grace, converted and become a witness for Christ, saved her marriage and preached to her family, but, no, and here we are.

God used my dad to raise a man from the dead, who subsequently received the Holy Spirit and was baptized in the name of Jesus. He backslid, died of liver failure due to septicemia from alcoholism. He knew everyone in town, and his testimony could have won untold numbers of people. But he sided with his flesh and went the way of it to his grave.

So, why did God heal these two unworthy souls, but not my wife's sister? The only answer I can think of is:

Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Every notable person in the Holy Scriptures, who was found to be faithful unto God, they all suffered terribly, culminating in the sufferings of the Anointed One at the Place of the Skull.

I am convinced that sometimes God does not heal because He knows He has a witness in the afflicted person, who will remain ever faithful to Him, even in the midst of, and despite their sufferings, to show the world and the church a simple, but profound truth:

The LORD is good and His mercy endures forever.

The sick and injured and afflicted soul that can say that, and mean it, is a special kind of light no man can touch and no devil can snuff out. Many people have figured out ways to write off miracles of healing. But this is a miracle of a different sort: a miracle of faithfulness when no healing comes. And of the two, I can't help but sometimes think, God prefers the latter to the former.

[Amanah]

There are many questions that remain unanswered but we walk by faith, trusting God, we know that even if we suffer in this life, we have a promise of a glorious life with our savior.

Why did God miraculously heal my son from a growth that came up on his shoulder and then later allow him to be killed in a motorcycle accident? I could let this torment me until I would not be able to function if I didn't leave it in God's hands.

Hebrews 11:30-40 King James Version (KJV)
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.
31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.
34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
38 (Of whom the world was not worthy) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

[BuckeyeBukaroo]

Originally Posted by n david

Sorry for the length...

I believe God's Word is true.
I believe Jesus walked on earth and healed all diseases.
I believe healing and miracles happen today.

However, I sometimes am frustrated when faith-filled prayers have been prayed and God seemingly stands idly by.

The other day I had a time in my car and walking through a grocery store when I was not so much praying as just talking with God. There are two situations which were weighing heavily on me and since I don't get time alone at home, I used driving and picking up groceries as my alone time to talk with God.

I have a wonderful friend who is a saint among men. We attended Bible School together and after leaving, something happened to him and he began having seizures. For the past 20+ years, he's had seizures. And the past few years they have increased to where not a day goes by that he doesn't have at least one seizure. He's been given all sorts of medication, had all kinds of tests. Recently went to a Mayo Clinic for a battery of tests which appear to be leading to some kind of brain surgery and implant to stop these seizures.

In all of this, my dear friend has remained steadfast and true to God. Looking back over the same 20+ year time span in my life, I am ashamed of what has caused me to lose focus or fail in my walk with God. Yet he hasn't. Prayers have been made by him and hundreds of others. Strength. Healing. A miracle. But no healing or miracle has come. The only thing he has said which could be considered negative is that he feels he is becoming a burden on his family.

I remember Job. How Job was "perfect and upright." How he "feared God, and eschewed evil." And how that, even when he lost his oxen, sheep, camels, servants and children, he remained faithful to God.

And even when the boils came, Job continued to worship. I'll come back to Job in a minute.

My friend is my living example of Job. The seizures have impacted every area of his life. He has been unable to work -- he had an incredible job but can't drive anymore. Most of the time, the seizures are so strong that they are physically, mentally and emotionally draining. He spends hours recovering and can't move around very well. But again, I do not personally know anyone who is more faithful to God or who is more encouraging to others in spite of what he's going through.

I have a family member who has a three month old baby, born with heart defects and other health issues. The past month and a half, the child has been in a children's hospital, hundreds of miles from home, going through specialized surgeries and trying to recover. The mom has been staying with this child, away from her husband and other children, during this time.

Using FB, over 1,800 people have joined from all over the US and around the world. Prayers have been made for this baby to be healed or for a miracle to be done.

The surgeries were successful, but the baby has been struggling with hypertension, breathing issues, high blood pressure and high CO2 levels. One day will bring a good report, the next will bring a request for urgent prayer.

So I'm driving and then walking around talking to God. And I'm frustrated, upset even. I probably looked pretty crazy to people who saw or heard me talking to myself.

Why are there hypocrites in perfect health, but my friend and this baby are not healed?

With all these prayers from hundreds and thousands of people, why is this baby in the hospital fighting for his life and my friend still having seizures?

I talked about Job and all he went through. I reminded God that at some point in Job's life when God stepped in and healed Job and restored to him more than what he had at the beginning.

God may have allowed Job to experience the loss of animals and death of his children and boils on his own flesh -- but there was a time even for Job when God said enough is enough.

At this point, I broke down. "God, if you will hear my prayer, have mercy on my friend and this baby as you did with Job. Honor the faithfulness of my dear friend and this baby's parents and heal them as you did your servant Job."

I believe God's Word is true.

But I am frustrated when God seemingly stands idly by.

Brother,
What you have typed will touch so many people because so many people can identify with God's Silence, His Hidden Face, and His Inaction in some of our moments of trial and pain.

Every Christian can identify with what you wrote and it does our heart good to read that, not only is someone having the same thoughts, but that same person has a resolve to hold on to Jesus Christ-- the kind of resolve that testifies to the hurt of other Christians, reminding us we can hold on too.

[BuckeyeBukaroo]

Sometimes what we go through is not about us.

[n david]

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

I don't have any answers to why God doesn't touch those we think He should touch. Right now, I have a sibling who is 4 years older then me who went home from the hospital to die. The doctors pumped her full of chemo, until she is nothing more than skin and bones. The tumor she has is fatal, and untreatable. They told her this over a year ago, and by their estimates she should of been gone already. But she is now home and signed the papers for them not to resuscitate her, or try to treat her.. But with all my prayers, and the church family's prayers, my sister has to be the lead man in all of this. As her faith be it unto her. Myself and another elder were driving home from one of our house churches, and received a phone call from the grandparents of a little boy in our church family. I told the grandfather we would head straight to the hospital. We arrived in the early morning hours, and the first thing I said to the father of the boy, is that he needed to believe for his son. We all got down around the child's hospital bed, the boy pale white, we prayed. But my prayers were for the father, to trust Jesus Christ. The boy was healed. Later that week, a woman in the room next door with a ill 5 year old, covered in painful lesions. Again, I told the mother that she was to place all her trust in Jesus Christ and Him alone to heal her daughter, we prayed around the girl's hospital bed and she was healed. The mother, the father, their faith as was Jairus' faith was the focal point for the children. I can't judge your friend, or the parents of the infant who is sick. Illness is a personal thing, that me as an outsider to that illness cannot understand what the person is going through. Because I'm not the one with the tumor that is incurable, my sister is. I have been laid at death's door more than once, but I still cannot tell someone I know how they feel, because I'm not them, and they are not me. All I can do is pray.

Sorry about your sister, EB.

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

When my youngest daughter was born a brother called me up and told me that God impressed him that my new born would die because what I believed as far as eschatology. My only answer to him was let's pray.

That's awful.

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

That's all we can do, God is good no matter what the outcome. God is good, He knows what lays ahead of us. God is always good.

Amen. As we used to say in church "God is good -- all the time; all the time -- God is good!"

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

Job didn't know why he was afflicted, but he had some religious imbeciles who were there to make his burden just a tad bit heavier. All trying to figure out what bad thing Job did to deserve this. Job started to question as he was worn down by his situation, a grieving wife, and religious idiots he called friends. Yet, the scripture said Job kept his integrity. People go through a lot, and we just can't judge their dark night of the soul, or how their feeling while their reeling. We can sit on the sidelines and encourage and cheer them on, through prayer and sensitive wisdom.

I love the book of Job. Not only the main story about Job's loss and restoration, but one of my favorite verses and promises is written in Job 14:7-9

""For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.""

That reminds me of what Isaiah wrote: "A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench."

[n david]

Originally Posted by votivesoul

There is a degree to God that is knowable, as far as He is willing to reveal Himself. But there are depths to God that are unsearchable. Some, probably even most of His ways are past finding out.

My wife's oldest sister died of breast cancer on my wife's birthday. She was the most anointed, Christ-like person I ever met. God even revealed her to me before we met or ever I saw a picture of her, in a dream, when my wife and I were just beginning to date.

Now, my wife's other sister is dying of breast cancer, with probably less than the rest of the year to live, unless this very new experimental treatment for which she was approved ends up working. She is not saved.

God instantly cured a friend of mine, an old girlfriend, actually, from high school, from before I was saved, when I prayed for her after she told me her cervical cancer was back (I didn't even know she had had cancer; I ran into her accidentally at a gas station one day after not seeing her for nearly five years).

She never once, to me at least, thanked God or gave Him any glory whatsoever, but in fact, railed on Him a few months later and blamed Him for a separate medical condition she discovered she had related to her heart. She is a thriced divorced wiccan last I knew. Her sister, brother in law, and nephew are all right now sitting in county jail for drug trafficking. She could have responded to God's healing grace, converted and become a witness for Christ, saved her marriage and preached to her family, but, no, and here we are.

God used my dad to raise a man from the dead, who subsequently received the Holy Spirit and was baptized in the name of Jesus. He backslid, died of liver failure due to septicemia from alcoholism. He knew everyone in town, and his testimony could have won untold numbers of people. But he sided with his flesh and went the way of it to his grave.

So, why did God heal these two unworthy souls, but not my wife's sister? The only answer I can think of is:

Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Every notable person in the Holy Scriptures, who was found to be faithful unto God, they all suffered terribly, culminating in the sufferings of the Anointed One at the Place of the Skull.

I appreciate you sharing these stories. I'm sorry for your family's loss.

Originally Posted by votivesoul

I am convinced that sometimes God does not heal because He knows He has a witness in the afflicted person, who will remain ever faithful to Him, even in the midst of, and despite their sufferings, to show the world and the church a simple, but profound truth:

The LORD is good and His mercy endures forever.

The sick and injured and afflicted soul that can say that, and mean it, is a special kind of light no man can touch and no devil can snuff out. Many people have figured out ways to write off miracles of healing. But this is a miracle of a different sort: a miracle of faithfulness when no healing comes. And of the two, I can't help but sometimes think, God prefers the latter to the former.

It's hard for my human mind to comprehend God preferring sickness, trials, pain, etc to being whole. But I like the part in bold you wrote. I do believe, viewing things from the spirit, that God loves to see a person who is faithful in spite of their obstacles or trials. And I agree that many times it's easy for people to discount healing or miracles, but the person who is faithful through sickness or affliction cannot be discounted.

[n david]

Originally Posted by Amanah

There are many questions that remain unanswered but we walk by faith, trusting God, we know that even if we suffer in this life, we have a promise of a glorious life with our savior.

There is incredible wisdom and truth to Paul's comment that we walk by faith and not by sight.

Sorry for your loss. I cannot imagine what it must be like to lose a child. Thank you for sharing.