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It is quite comfortable when we are healthy to tell others, "By His stripes we are healed," and talk to them about faith or lack of it. But what do we do when we become sick and our prayer does not bring healing? If God tells us specifically that He will heal us miraculously, we can afford to avoid medical treatment and wait for it, even when people ridicule us. But if there is no clear guidance from God in our particular situation, isn't it better to receive medical help which God has provided us, than to act as if we have faith? We may know people who have done this and died. For us to have this kind of faith in extraordinary situations, we must have specifically heard from God (Ro.10:17). Just believing that God is able to heal is not sufficient, because we can still be unsure about His will in a particular situation.

Isa.53:5 is not a clear, unambiguous promise for physical healing, as the whole passage is about the coming of the Messiah who will save us from our sins. If it was really a promise for physical healing as a part of salvation through Jesus, it would have been truly important and we could have expected a lot of clarification and teaching about it in the New Testament. But it is not there. Jesus healed many out of compassion and because that was a sign of His being the Christ. But there is no promise of healing for every believer.

The fact remains that God is able to heal anyone, any time, miraculously. It is because we have faith in Him that we ask for healing. But for mysterious reasons, He does not heal everyone who asks, and many even die. Then we cannot say that He did not heal us because of lack of faith! It is possible that sickness has come because of some sin in our life that we have not dealt with, as in the example of people taking part in communion without judging themselves (1Co.11:29,30). It could also be God disciplining us in order to catch our attention because we have been careless with some sin even after many warnings (He.12:10).

If God heals someone miraculously, it does not mean that therefore we too will be. God allowed the apostle James to be killed by Herod while He saved Peter from the prison miraculously. There are things that God does not make clear to us. So, when we find ourselves in a difficult situation, it will be good for us to trust our Father in that we believe He knows what is best for us (Je.29:11). It will be a mark of our faith in our Father if we can pray for healing with an attitude of submission to Him whatever His will for us is going to be. If He chooses, He will heal us miraculously, or He may tell us to receive medical treatment. But when we trust Him, we believe that if He allows us to go through sickness He will be with us all through, and His grace will be our comfort and strength. If we trust Him, we will also have no fear of death standing over us as a frightful thing, because death will only take us to be with Him forever without any separation.

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