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Commentary on "Faith and Healing"
Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, May 1, 2010
Overview
“The student will –
- Know: Describe the benefits of faith, not only in developing a relationship with God but for healthy living.
- Feel: Foster an abiding sense of God’s power, love, watchcare, and tender faithfulness.
- Do: Depend on God’s Word to do for you what He promises to do.”
(From the Teacher’s Comments section.)
Observations
I found this to be an interesting lesson. Like most ministries, we deal with these issues quite often where I work at People to People Ministries. A recent phone call illustrates the case.
A man, obviously struggling with intense grief, called to ask why God didn’t heal his daughter. His reasoning covered several points made in this lesson.
- It is wrong for parents to outlive their children. (This is not in the lesson, but how many of us know people who have experienced this most awful loss, or have experienced it ourselves.)
- I know I’m saved. At least I thought I was saved. Does God’s refusal to answer my prayer mean that I’m not saved?
- Did I not have enough faith?
- Is God really as loving and merciful as the Bible says?
This lesson makes some really good points regarding these issues, so I want to be as supportive as possible of these points. In particular, I appreciate the openness of the author(s) to actual physical healing. Many churches are afraid of healing. They’ve come to see it as the activity of Satan on behalf of so-called “charismaniacs”. They always would describe plain evidence of healing as a false miracle, and fear for the healed person’s eternal destiny.
Where I disagree is not so much with any explicit statement in the lesson, but in the sense that God’s power is viewed as something “out there.” The Know, Feel and Do objectives quoted above are the starting point of this in the Teacher’s Quarterly.
My goal is to demonstrate Biblically that our relationship with Jesus is much, much more than “out there.”
Summary
- I applaud the author(s) of this lesson for identifying key issues involved in dealing with sickness and healing.
- However, I wish that they had gone farther in explaining the real nature of faith and God’s power in these situations.
Copyright 2010 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised April 20, 2010. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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