At my Christian school we prayed for one of our classmates. He died of leukemia. We are all sad and upset and shocked. Why didn’t God heal him? I feel like I am losing my faith. Does God even hear our prayers? Sometimes I even wonder if God is real. Why does God let these things happen? Please help me.
Zack
Dear Zack,
I am sorry that you have lost a classmate. It is very shocking when someone so young dies, not only for his friends but also for his family. I don’t know why some people we pray for are healed and others aren’t. God does hear all of our prayers. We don’t always get our prayers answered the way we desire them to be, even when they are wonderful, godly prayers.
In the book of Job, we read the story of a very godly and wealthy man. God is pleased because Job is so faithful. But Satan tells God it’s easy to be faithful when one is so blessed. So God allowed Satan to attack all that Job had. All of Job’s livestock died, his servants were killed, and so were his ten children (Job 1). But Job remained faithful to God.
Eventually, Satan was allowed to make Job sick (Job 2:7). Then his friends came and told him he must have done something wrong or God never would have let all these terrible things happen to him. But God speaks and explains that Job had done right, not wrong.
Job finally realized people cannot fully understand the purposes of God (42:1–3). In the end God gave him back twice the number of camels, sheep, and oxen that he had owned before. But he gave him only ten more children, not twenty. That’s because God knew that Job’s other 10 children were not lost. They were waiting in heaven for Job.
God didn’t heal your friend the way you hoped he would. But even now he is healed and waiting for his family and friends who today miss him so.
Jordan
Your friend’s mother died yesterday. You know you should go over and talk to her, comfort her. But you just can’t. You have no idea what to say. Well, this passage suggests that maybe you don’t need to say anything! Job was so sad that when his friends came to comfort him, “they could hardly recognize him” (Job 2:12). What did they do? They sat “with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him” (Job 2:13)! Many times, when someone is sad or upset, words aren’t necessary. Just your presence speaks of your love and caring. Don’t be afraid. Go visit your friend. You don’t have to say a word.
Do doubts and questions show a lack of faith? Shouldn’t we just say, “The Bible says . . .” and stop asking hard questions? When Job’s friends insisted that God punishes the wicked, Job asked a hard question: “Why then do we know wicked people who seem happier and better off than we are?” God wasn’t upset with Job. In fact, God said that Job was right to ask the hard questions (Job 42:7). We can be honest about our doubts and questions. Like Job, we can know God has the answer. We just don’t know the answer . . . yet.
Many of today’s science books discuss evolution as if scientists know what happened at creation years ago. But God once asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” (Job 38:4).
Scientists have only one way of learning things. They observe things and develop hypotheses. Then they run and rerun experiments to test the hypotheses. Does water boil at 212ºF? Test it and see. Of course, there’s no way to experiment with creation or evolution. So this “best way” can’t be used by scientists to find out what happened long ago.
“Where were you?” is still a good question to ask when scientists talk as if they know for sure how the earth came to be. It’s good for everyone to remember that while scientists weren’t there, God was.
Job
Tough Times.
Bad things happen to good people. Job was a good person, but one day he lost all his money, all his children and his health. Job was faithful to God, and he couldn’t explain why God was letting him suffer.