Is my sickness a punishment from God? | Two Minute Daily Devotional

Q. Is my sickness God’s punishment for my sin? Perhaps He is teaching me something? A. If you think like that, you will not be healed. No, just as God forgives sin, instantly, He wants to heal you, NOW! God loves you! When Jesus healed the blind man the religious leaders asked, ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents?’ Jesus said neither! If God were to punish us now for every sin or mistake, then every one of us would be dead, including me!  To say that our sickness is God’s punishment for our sin denies the truth of the Bible which says Christ has already paid the price of sin for us! It’s the devil who brings sin and sickness into your life – God has made a provision in Christ to deal with both! Q. How about those who are not healed, or who are healed and then lose their healing? Aren’t you afraid they will be disappointed and lose their faith? Wouldn’t it be better not to pray? A. If I believed this, I would not even preach the Gospel! Almost every time I evangelise there are those who reject and who then become harder to win. ‘He that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall... be destroyed’ (Proverbs 29:1).  I hear of so many who condemn evangelistic crusades because, of the thousands who come forward in the meetings to repent, not all come to the church and remain believers, many go back into their sin. Jesus’ answer to this was the parable of the sower: some seed fell on good ground, some fell among thorns and were choked by them (Matthew 13:3-9). It is the same with healing, not all will be healed.