During our time in Amoro, Uganda, we were out evangelizing and I met an elderly woman, Frieda, who had a problem with her foot. She was sitting on the ground and I could see that it was swollen to nearly twice the size of her other one. I didn’t really know what to say to this woman and her daughter, mostly because they were living in an old IDP camp left over from the war in Northern Uganda that had only ended a few years ago. The war had lasted twenty years and these people were scarred in a way that I could never imagine. Here I am, expected to tell her to believe in Jesus, when I have no idea what kinds of horrors she’s been through in her life.
Because I don’t really know what to say to comfort her in anyway, I simply lay out the gospel for her. I ask her if she understands and if it sounds like the truth to her. (This is all going through a translator so I don’t really know what she’s saying). My translator, Pastor Patrick says to me “She said she will believe in your Jesus if you pray and heal her foot.” Of course I agreed to pray for her, and more than ever was pleading with God to step in and heal her. I said AMEN and opened my eyes to see her unchanged foot. I began to wonder if it was my lack of faith or hers that would cause God not to answer the prayer. I thought of one of my favorite stories in the book of Mark where Jesus heals in response to a woman’s faith.
Mark 5:25-29 “A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She has suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
Jesus realized at once that the healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?”
But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell on her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
I’ve always loved this story because of the simplicity and profound nature of this woman’s faith and how difficult it seems to have the same faith. Frieda said she would have faith IF she was healed. The woman in this story already had faith that Jesus was who he said he was and KNEW that if she did a simple act like touching his robe, she would be completely healed of a disease she had for 12 years!
I know that God wants us to have the same faith that this woman had. I know there are probably many reasons why God did not heal Frieda’s foot that day. I just wonder if it’s because Jesus wants Frieda to have faith without proof first, if he wants her to hear about him and KNOW that he could heal her first before he does it. I also wonder if it’s because of me and my lack of faith. I hate to admit it at month 8 on the race, but I’m still stuck in the cynnicle world of believing ‘in theory’, but not in practice, partially wanting God to convince me, just like Frieda, before I’ll believe he really can still heal. If I really believe Jesus is who he says he is and believe what it says in John 14: 12-14, then Frieda should have been healed.
It says “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!”
Jesus healed many people, raised the dead and cast out demons. This passage says that ANYONE who believes in him will do the SAME WORKS that he did! This means that all believers should be praying in the name of Jesus for people to be healed, and they should actually be healed!
This is simple Biblical truth, but it’s so difficult for me to actually believe and live out. I pray that before the end of the race, I witness God’s miraculous healing. Pray for me to have the faith it takes to see this happen and also pray for me to never need to see this happen to believe it will someday.
