Grace is Enough

Q: Why were Peter and Paul unable to call on God for healings and such when they got older?

A: Thank you for your question. I do not necessarily agree with your premise that Peter and Paul were not able to call on God for healing. However, Paul, when he was asking God to remove his thorn in the flesh was told by God, "My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9)." Now, we do not know for certain that Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was a physical or mental problem that needed "healing." But, we do know that when we believe we are in need of a healing from God, our pain can teach us to trust and depend on Him. There is no promise in the Scriptures where God says we can just call on Him and be healed or that healing is guaranteed as an inheritance of our faith. Besides, there is ample evidence to show that God sustained Peter and Paul through some rough times on their missionary journeys.

When defending his ministry, Paul said, "I’ve been imprisoned much more often. I’ve been beaten more times than I can count. I’ve faced death many times. I received the “forty lashes minus one” from the Jews five times. I was beaten with rods three times. I was stoned once. I was shipwrecked three times. I spent a day and a night on the open sea. I’ve been on many journeys. I faced dangers from rivers, robbers, my people, and Gentiles. I faced dangers in the city, in the desert, on the sea, and from false brothers and sisters. I faced these dangers with hard work and heavy labor, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, and in the cold without enough clothes (1 Corinthians 11:23-27)." It would appear that through all this suffering Paul endured, there were many times that he had to be healed. The second letter to the Corinthians was written about 10 years before Paul died, so that is pretty close to the end of his life . And what we see him write about his sufferings is proof that God had not only healed him on many occasions, but sustained him in many different ways. 

The Apostle Peter spoke often about suffering for being a Christian, but didn't speak much about asking God to heal him or deliver him from suffering. In fact, the words of Peter were quite the opposite. "Dear friends, don’t be surprised about the fiery trials that have come among you to test you. These are not strange happenings. Instead, rejoice as you share Christ’s suffering. You share his suffering now so that you may also have overwhelming joy when his glory is revealed (1 Peter 4:12-13)." Like Paul, Peter was familiar with and not surprised by his suffering. They both knew that suffering was to be expected as a byproduct of their faith in Jesus Christ and the preaching of the Gospel they had undertaken. Both of these Apostles did not think it necessary to call upon the Lord to heal them, but to encourage others to stand firm in the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the midst of their suffering. This is not to say that they would have not received a healing should they had asked God to be healed, only that it was not the point of their ministries. 

Furthermore, both Paul and Peter were told by Jesus, personally, that they would suffer for His Gospel. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is talking to Peter about "feeding" the Lord's sheep and the end of Peter's life. "He said this to show the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. After saying this, Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me (John 21:19).”" Here Jesus told Peter how he would die at an old age and made no mention of being healed or withholding healing from him. When Paul was recovering from his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, God told Ananias, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake (Acts 9:15-16)." Again, we see God speak in no uncertain terms about the suffering that would fall upon Peter and Paul. God did not qualify it by saying that all they had to do was call upon Him when they were hurting and He would remove it. They would learn through their suffering just how much God loved them.  

Near the end of his life, the Apostle Paul said, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7)." Paul was looking forward to death rather than seeking a fleshly healing. Why? Death is healing! Peter and Paul both would "prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8)." Whatever healing received here on earth is only temporary in nature and pales in comparison to the eternal glory promised to all believers. Peter and Paul were not unable to call on the Lord for healing. Instead they knew that suffering was part of preaching the Gospel and that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18)." That is the lesson we should all learn. The ultimate healing occurs when we go to be with the Lord, whether through death or if He returns to gather us with the rest of the saints. In the meantime, we should be about getting to know the Lord in the midst of our pain and preaching the Gospel to others who do not know the Lord and are in need of His spiritual healing that only is received through faith in Jesus Christ.