HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 168
page A166
Healing continued
We can look forward to having God’s power work through us in a special way. When God
works through the weak, it is obvious that what occurred had to happen because of him,
thus showing the world his love and power.
If I am not healed, does this mean I do not have enough faith?
• MAT T H E W 1 7 :1 4 -2 0 | A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, have mercy on
my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly . . . I brought him to your disciples, but they
couldn’t heal him.” . . . Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that
moment the boy was well. Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we
cast out that demon?” “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them.
A man approached Jesus to heal his son when the disciples were unable to do so. After
Jesus healed the demon-possessed boy, the disciples asked him privately why they
couldn’t heal the boy. Jesus responded that the disciples did not have enough faith, but he
never said the boy lacked enough faith. This is a dangerous trap we can fall into ourselves
and even use to wrongly judge others. God is able to heal all diseases and sovereignly
chooses who will be physically healed while on earth and who will have to wait for heaven
for eternal healing. Our responsibility is to believe that he is able to heal us and to trust him
fully to make the decision as to when that healing happens, even if that means he waits to
heal us until we reach our home in heaven.
PROMISES FROM GOD
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HelpFinder
• PSA L M 1 4 7 :3 | He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.
• MA L A C H I 4 :2 | “For you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing
in his wings.”
• 1 T I MOT H Y 4 :8 | “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better,
promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”
Heaven/Eternal Life See also Future; Salvation
Our culture has various misguided ideas about heaven: that it consists of departed souls
eternally playing harps in comfy cloud-chairs or that it means doing everything you love
best. King Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes that God has planted eternity in
the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). This means that we innately know there is more
than just this life. Something we were made for is still missing. Because we are created in
God’s image, we have eternal value, and nothing but the eternal God can truly satisfy. He
has built into us a restless yearning for the kind of perfect world that can only be found in
heaven and a new earth. Through nature, art, music, relationships, and many other gifts,
he gives us a glimpse of that world. Someday he will restore earth to the way it was when
he first created it, when it was perfect, and eternity will be a never-ending exploration of
its beauty and a perfect relationship with God. Perhaps the most tragic misconception
is that heaven is the place where everyone goes after death—or at least everyone who
has lived a “good” life. The Bible, by contrast, presents a picture of heaven as the “New
Earth,” or this world restored to its original perfect state. It will be the glorious, awesome
home of the triune God. And the Bible is also very specific about who will live there.
Is there really a heaven?
• J O H N 1 4 :2 | “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”
• 2 C O R I NT H I A NS 5 :1 | For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down
(that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven.
Not only is there a heaven, but Jesus is preparing for your arrival. Heaven is described
most often in terms of being your home. It is not a paradise you will simply visit on
vacation, but an eternal dwelling place where you will live in joyful fellowship with your
heavenly Father and his family.