'How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? ' It was a prophet who said that; see Habakkuk 1:2.
Pause for thought....
In my ministry there have been two pastoral issues that have engaged me and fellow elders in heart-wrenching discussion far more than any others. These are remarriage after a divorce and healing. For this brief contribution it is the issue of healing that is uppermost. People often say that the biggest problem for the Christian faith is that of suffering. In fact, I think that suffering is part of a bigger question - God why don't you do something? Do we dare put it as bluntly as the prophet? Are you listening God? No one can pastor a church for very long before someone dies of cancer at a young age. It's agonising. The elders pray, the church is called to prayer and fasting, faith levels are high, the fight intensifies, but the individual dies. I'm sorry, but I don't believe that any church, however high its faith levels, or that any healing ministry, whatever the claims to success, ever see everyone healed. Please don't call me cynical, because I'm not, I'm a realist like Habakkuk, 'How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?'
Why doesn't God do something? Why doesn't God intervene: that's the real problem. Why doesn't God intervene to stop the slaughter in Syria (almost forgotten), why doesn't God intervene to stop children dying in Yemen, why doesn't God intervene in the current atrocities in Zimbabwe (under-reported)? Why didn't God intervene to heal the brain tumour of that beautiful 4 year old child of Christian parents? Why doesn't God intervene to give some answer to the parents of Madeleine McCann? It's 12 years now. How long. Lord....?
I'm not cynical; for one reason, I've seen God intervene. I've been in a an 'emergency' prayer meeting for a teenager sent home to die and seen them totally healed. I've known a man with terrible back pain for many years who one day cried out, 'How long, Lord?', and was instantly healed. I've twice been in situations where I could have died within moments but I believe God intervened and delivered me completely. I've been in a family situation of great crisis without any idea of what to do but as I prayed the phone rang and 'out of the blue' there was an instant answer.
Our danger is perhaps that we can put faith in our faith rather than faith in God. He is Sovereign and he works in his way.
In Hebrews 11:33 the three words, 'who through faith' absolutely control the meaning of the next six verses. So we read of those, 'who through faith....escaped the edge of the sword.......were killed by the sword.'
So we live by faith in a Sovereign God, whatever. You don't only need faith for something to happen, but you need faith when nothing seems to happen. There is no one else we can turn to who has the words of eternal life.
I recommend a superb book by Tim Keller: WALKING WITH GOD THROUGH PAIN AND SUFFERING.
Even more I recommend we call to mind the greatest intervention of all: 'But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son... Gal 4:4