W2L said in post #91:
I use to beat myself up because i havent been healed like others claim to have. It shipwrecked my faith. I thought God cast me away. However, i found Pauls words to be comforting.
Note that even Paul himself wasn't healed of something:
2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Satan can be the one who causes people to suffer (Luke 13:16). Jesus came to counteract Satan's work in the world (John 10:10). Jesus miraculously healed multitudes of people (Matthew 12:15b) oppressed by Satan (Acts 10:38). And Jesus still miraculously heals some people today, either directly by his Spiritual power, or through Christians who have been given the Spiritual gift of miraculous healing (1 Corinthians 12:9).
Also, as you have pointed out, Christians, with their hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2), can look beyond any temporal suffering which they may be undergoing (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Revelation 2:10-11; 1 Peter 4:12-13). God can permit some Christians to suffer in order to help them to remain humble before him and others (2 Corinthians 12:7). Also, suffering can strengthen Christians spiritually (Romans 5:3-5). It can help them to stop putting any hope in that which is merely mortal and temporal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, John 12:25, Matthew 10:37-39). Also, when God allows Christians to suffer, he provides them with his comfort to help them through their suffering (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).
People should not (as is sometimes done) say that it is evil for God to allow human suffering. For the only way to eradicate any possibility of human suffering would be to eradicate any possibility of humans committing sin (John 5:14). And the only way to eradicate any possibility of humans committing sin would be to eradicate their free will. It is better for humans to have free will and for there to be the possibility of suffering, than for humans to be robots with no free will, and for there to be no possibility of suffering. By becoming a human in Jesus Christ, and suffering and dying for human sins, God has made a way for believers to retain their free will, and yet escape suffering in hell forever for their sins (John 3:36, Revelation 14:10-11). For as the human/divine Son of God, Jesus' suffering satisfied God the Father's justice (Isaiah 53:11, KJV), which requires an infinite amount of human suffering for sin (Matthew 25:41,46).
Also, suffering is like gravity, in that while it can cause people problems, who would want to live without it? For example, someone could say that God was cruel to create gravity because it sometimes causes old people to fall down and break their hips. But who would want to get rid of gravity and float off into space? It is the same way with suffering. Someone could say that God was cruel to create the possibility of suffering. But if God made it impossible for people to suffer, what could happen to them? For example, imagine that a man went on a camping trip, built a campfire, and laid down in his sleeping bag near the fire and fell asleep. While he was sleeping, he turned over at one point in such a way that his hand went into the fire. But because of his ability to suffer, he immediately woke up and pulled his hand out of the fire, keeping it from getting badly burned. But if he had had no ability to suffer, he would have stayed asleep with his hand in the fire, and woken up in the morning with no hand: It would have been burned clean off.
So suffering can be a good thing when it causes people to draw back from something which will harm them. God sometimes brings suffering to those he loves as a way of chastening them and getting them to repent from a sin (Revelation 3:19, Hebrews 12:5-11). For God knows how much harm their sin will cause them (Galatians 6:8, Hebrews 10:26-29), while on their own they could be completely oblivious to the danger (Proverbs 14:12).
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Also, any lack of healing in a particular congregation, for example, does not negate the validity of the Spiritual gifts per se. For God does not give the gift of healing to everyone (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). And he does not choose to heal in every instance (
2 Corinthians 12:8-10). Also, people can prevent themselves from being healed by a lack of faith (Luke 8:48, Acts 14:9).