I think you are asking the wrong question. It would be like asking God to restore your crushed car after a tree fell on it.
If God healed even one amputee, no one would have to "live by faith" anymore. Even when Jesus did miracles in His day though, there were still unbelievers.
Anyhow, I think this is a more appropriate line of questioning - and I'd be interested to hear what the leading televangelists and especially the hard-core fundamentalists (Rodney Bell, the late Jerry Fawell, Bob Jones III, etc) would have to say.
For a background on this email, my wife, who just turned 54 in January 2012, had a stroke in June. Ever since then, she has just laid there, eyes open and that is it. No interaction at all. She never cheated people, smoked, did drugs, hurt people - unlike some I know that by my eyesight far more deserved a stroke or catastrophic illness more than she.
I know a lot of people are praying for [name] and would be disappointed or even angry if they found out I was not one of them. I am hard time praying for [name]'s recovery based on this:
It is easy to be a Christian and praise God when things are going great or even ok. Not so easy when you have been unemployed for three years and see better Christians (one is a Gideon) who have more talents, more skills, are smarter who have been unemployed longer. When I finally took a job at 54 years of age working at Wendy's for $7.25 an hour, 20 hours a week with no benefits, of course people thanking God had answered my prayers (their prayers) and provided me that job. I went and got that job.
Then maybe God did get me a job, the best job I ever had in my life in February. Though ok, I never ever thanked Him for it or gave Him credit for a lot of reasons. Then [name] had her stroke.
So a lot of people are praying for her. But not me. I look and I see so much going on in this world, every day there are murders and murders in Atlanta, absolutely senseless killings. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that are sending home hundreds (thousands) of dead and forever maimed soldiers. Some certainly are Christians, some are not.
I am having trouble believing God will specifically answer prayers for [name]'s recovery because Muslims, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists, Indians in India, people in "apostate" churches that really are not saved, 7th Day Adventists, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses all pray for their loved ones to be healed. Obviously, some recover and some do not. Since all these people are praying to the "wrong" God, then supposedly those who recover, are not recovering because of God healing them?
Then there are faithful, Bible believing Christians praying for their loved ones. Some recover, some do not. When they do recover, it is always God who healed or restored them, never the doctors and the medical treatment. Of course, regardless of God, had proper medical treatment not been administered, I think we can safely say they would not have recovered.
I was "raised" in a very strict fundamentalist church after coming from an "apostate liberal Protestant church". Yet I have seen things in the fundamentalist churches that would surely turn God's stomach. A huge church here in Atlanta will encourage us to support missions that cost $3,000 per person to send someone 8 hours to London, then 8 hours to Bosnia for two weeks before making the 16 hour return trip. Yet when a lady in the church needed help who lived a distance away from the church, the first thing the "minister" said was "Brother she lives an hour away". I guess had she lived in Bosnia, it would have been no problem. Or the church asking asking asking for us to give give give to get the church out of debt due to offerings being down due to so many unemployed - yet calling a staff member up on the platform to give him a bonus check for his 20th anniversary of "service". Were we giving money to the church to get the church out of debt or give this staff person, who had a job, benefits, vacation, etc an unneeded bonus check, especially since the church was hurting so badly financially?
And when I look at missionaries constantly asking for money because they are $20,000 in debt, why isn't God answering those prayers, needs? After all, as the church continually asks for money, even if you are unemployed, sinking in debt, they keep telling you "God will meet all your needs". Of course, you have to "trust Him".
Lastly, I look and see people like Creflo Dollar, Richard Roberts, Joyce Myers, Paul and Jan Crouch, "Bishop Weeks", the list could go on for sometime, all making theirselves millionaires selling a gospel that says God will bless bless bless you.
Seems to me, good Christian, backslidden Christian, person of the wrong faith, ungodly people like Howard Stern, Bill Clinton, Hugh Hefner, again the list could go on for a long time, all have lives that are great. It just seems God blesses blesses blesses some and well, the rest of us, pooh on us. Yet we are constantly taught to believe Jesus loves me because the Bible tells us so.
If you have some answers, please share, especially in the light of God not answering prayers for so many others, yet people who are not so good Christians or of the wrong faith or just outright God haters like Hugh Hefner and Howard Stern, they seem to have it all.
Again, I apologize for the intrusion but if I dared send this to the church I used to attend, they would probably kick me out and ask me never to return. Which probably wouldn't affect me anyhow as I do not see myself ever going to any church again. I know, I know, I will still one day have to bow and declare Jesus is Lord of All. Just not likely again in this lifetime.
Thank you,
[name and contact information removed]
