27th April 2012

By Owain Davies (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

From here

Expect the unexpected. Now there’s a simple dichotomy to ponder on. Anyway, life often has it’s little surprises and today I’ve enjoyed another. Yes, for the second time in 48 hours I’ve had an unexpected visitor. This time, a guy I used to know extremely well, but have had almost no contact with for maybe 17 years. The funny thing is, that almost literally a minute before the doorbell rang I was actually thinking about him. How weird is that? Actually not at all, if you believe that God speaks to his children. Although I can’t remember what I was thinking, I’m quite sure the Lord was helping me ‘tune in’ to my pending visitor. I really do have to be a little more discerning about what God is saying sometimes, though I was distracted by trying to work on preparing my hall for decorating. Once upon a time, in Christian circles, we’d commonly discount all coincidences as being more accurately God-incidents. Come to think of it, there’s not too much wrong in thinking like that. One thing is for sure, the Lord always surprises. And being both designer and creator of the universe, the author of life itself, he certainly is well able to make something new happen.

So my visitor and I played catch-up and it wasn’t long before our conversation turned to the question of why God allows suffering in the world. It’s one of those subjects that gets churned quite regularly I know. Especially when the Lord apparently healed all he chose to pray for when he walked upon the earth, and he commands us to do likewise. Yes, the Bible does talk quite a bit about the Lord’s power to heal through us, his followers. But then again the person of Jesus initially came and worked, with few exceptions, exclusively for the people of Israel. He basically only ever did the work he saw his Father in heaven doing and turned aside from most others. Now obviously that work eventually broadened to encompass the whole of mankind, but nonetheless the principle remains… we need to seek the face of God for his will, day by day, year on year as we journey through life. Maybe the next time I visit the sick he will have shown me his willingness to heal whoever that person is. No matter the condition. Then I’ll pray the prayer of faith and speak a word of healing with complete confidence. In the meantime I’ll keep praying for God’s mercy and grace whilst simply petitioning for a work of healing in the needy. And I should keep a First Aid kit handy as well.

So then, I wonder who’ll come knocking on my door next. Maybe I shouldn’t expect anybody. Or should I?

Colossians 1:24 ‘I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.’ (NLT)