Sincere and Sick

“Uncle Barney was the sincerest Christian I ever met, but He died of cancer.”

You don’t have to preach healing long before people start hurling statements like this at you.  The truth is that you get healed by believing and acting on the Word, not by being sincere.  Muslim suicide bombers are sincere, but that doesn’t excuse what they do.  Pastors who preach that God in His sovereignty “lets” some good people die are usually sincere, but people who listen to their sincerity might someday sincerely wish they hadn’t!  You don’t receive healing because you mean well or your pastor meant well; you receive it because you believe and act according to God’s Word.  If you don’t hear how to do it, you won’t do it.

“Cousin Debbie was the most loving Christian I knew, but she died of a heart attack.”

You don’t get healed by being loving.  You SHOULD love other people, and that is actually a higher priority to God than knowing how to exercise faith (1 Corinthians 13:13).  But LOVE doesn’t get you healed; FAITH does.  You can’t substitute one for the other.

If you get into the thinking described above, you are subscribing to a works gospel, not a grace gospel, because these are your implied thoughts:

“If God should have healed anyone, it should have been Uncle Barney because he was such a sincere Christian.”

“If God should have healed anyone, it should have been Cousin Debbie because she was so loving.”

God already DID something about Uncle Barney’s healing and Cousin Debbie’s healing, but they needed to know how to appropriate it by faith.  If they didn’t, all the sincerity and love in the world could not make up for their lack of knowledge.  God did not make a decision for those individuals about their healings during their lifetimes.  He made the decision that they should be healed before He had Jesus take their sicknesses as their Substitute.  There is nothing for God to decide today.  WE have to decide to accept the provision that was already purchased for us.  But people can only act on the Scriptures that they know for themselves.  Faith comes by hearing the Word.

Jesus never told anyone, “Your sincerity has made you well” or “Your love has made you well.”  He DID say, “Your faith has made you well.”  (Click here to see all the cases when He said something like that.)

I used to think that God should give me a free pass on healing because I played the piano and sang at services preached by healing ministers.  I didn’t think it was “fair” that God “let” me get sick.  But God WAS fair – Jesus HAD taken my sicknesses as well as everyone else’s, but I still had to believe and act on the Word just like anyone else.  What I was doing for the Lord, though commendable, had NOTHING to do with why I should have been healed.  I started walking in health a lot more once I realized this.  I was sincere and loving and serving the Lord passionately, but it was only acting on what Jesus had already done for me that stopped sickness in its tracks.

You SHOULD be sincere and you SHOULD be loving.  You SHOULD also believe and act on the Word in regard to your healing.  You don’t have to choose between these; you can do them all!