I have been told countless times by Christians that I will be healed by God, or that I lack faith in God and that is why I have a disability. The fact is there wrong.
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. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 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. 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.
Its also very clear that sometimes disabilities are the result of sin, for example I know someone that has a cognitive disability because of her mothers addiction to alcohol and various street drugs. Because of her mother’s sin this person has to live with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
I think its important to realise that sometimes God wants us to go through Trials to strengthen us as well, I can say that Christians with Disabilities are the people I know of that are the most dependant on God.
What do you think about people who say people who disabilities lack faith?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The Bible provides a variety of answers to this question of the cause of disability. First, can disability be the result of sin? One may unknowingly drink too much alcohol, resulting in a disability to a child, so that may not be the best example. However, in a fit of anger I might shake my infant, or beat a child or an adult for that matter that would result in a disability. I have a friend who people tried to kill resulting in a severe physical disability. So disability can be the result of that kind of sin. However, disability is not a direct result of the general sinful condition of parents. As a colleague of mine says, “If sin is the cause of disability, and we have a Biblical understanding of our sinful condition, then we should expect that all children should have a disability.” I typically tell people that the fact that my two children were not born disabled is proof to me that disability is not caused by the sins of the parents as if it were so, my children would be disabled. Additionally we have the passage in John 9 where Jesus addresses this question specifically. God tells Moses that it is he that makes the deaf and the blind. We also learn in 1 Corinthians 12:22 that people we think are less important, perhaps due to disability, are indispensible.
However, regarding the question above about faith, the passage above provided is the perfect answer. One of the greatest men of faith in the history of the world asks to be healed of his disability and God responds, “No.” You see, God is sovereign. Faith is not something that forces God’s hand. Part of faith is seeking God’s will, and get ready for this, I believe at times disability is part of God’s will for a person. We see it in His response to Paul above, and Paul sees it as well. Our society is rapidly attempting to get rid of all people with disabiliteis. Not heal them, get rid of them through abortion, or end of life killing. People with disabilities are clearly a part of God’s plan for the world. They are part of the beauty of the diversity of His creation. That we have not realized this is not a problem with God it is a problem with us.
At an early age, I knew that I was called to be a minister/pastor. I also knew that I would spend my life overcoming the biases and prejudices of society as a whole and the church in particular… you see I was born with Cerebral Palsy (CP). I was called to preach and actually began preaching when I was 12 years old. The pastor who allowed me to minister within the church, died while I was hospitalized due to the dislocation of my “good hip” (the left one).
The pastor that followed told me that I would never be ordained and would only be allowed to minister, in a limited way, in my local church. In other words, he was telling me to forget ever pastoring my own church, he would never reccommend it to the hierarchy of the denomination that we were a part of. Another time (yes, I was ordained, due to the support of a visionary bishop and other fair-mined men) I was up to pastor a church in Bermuda, but the Presiding Elder that had to reccommend me, saw me walk towards him and said, “What’s wrong with you, did you have a sroke or something. I did not get the assignment. An evangelist approached me one summer in the late 1970s shaking her head and saying, “why did they ever ordain you, you obviously lack faith, since you are crippled.” These attitudes, naturally, made me begin to question my calling and, most of all, my faith. But the Lord brought back to my remembrance the incident that occurred in the life of the Apostle Paul. He prayed three times to the Lord Jesus for his thorn in the flesh to be removed. Jesus did not honor the apostle’s request, but rather said to him, My GRACE (God’s unmerited favor towards us) is sufficient.” Those words have sustained me, maintained me, and moved me forward in faith.
Thanks for that great story! Christians with disabilities need to hear this more often, as far to many of us are hearing the same things you heard early on.
Jesus said to take up our cross and to follow him. He did not promise to take up our crosses if we’d follow him.