CARE Ministries, Inc.: Frequently Asked Questions and Some Biblical Answers

1. Why is there suffering in the world?
Romans 8:18-27
The Apostle Paul, who endured beatings, shipwreck, imprisonment and chronic illness commented in Romans 8:18-21 "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."

God is concerned that we not be so attached to this world that we forget the glories of the heavenly realms that await us. Through the ultimate victory over suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can look forward to eternity with God.

2. How can a loving God permit me to be blind?
God is more concerned about our eternal destiny than we can imagine. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him, might not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 It was by the sinful rebellion of man that sin and disease entered into the world. Blindness like other types of disability or suffering are a part of living in this sinful world. In Jeremiah 31:3 the Lord addresses a down fallen nation which had cried out to him asking why they had been exiled "The Lord appeared to us in the past saying, 'I have loved you with an everlasting love ; I have draw you with my loving kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel."

In much the same way, he will rebuild and restore those who place their trust in him because of his great love for them. Psalm 30 encourages all who suffer, "Weeping shall endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5 "To you O, Lord, I called for mercy;...You have turned my weeping into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to thee forever." Psalm 30: 8, 11, 12

3. Why has God not healed me and restored my sight?
John 5:1-15
In the Bible, healing is used to show the authority and crendentials of the healer. In John 5, Jesus went to the pool at Bethesda, where in verse 3 it states, "Here a great number of disabled people used to lie-the blind, the lame, the paralyzed." Jesus went to one man there, an invalid for 38 years and the man was healed at the command of Jesus. Nothing in scripture indicates this one man to have been more worthy or of greater faith than any others. In fact, he did not even ask to be healed nor did he know who it was that healed him.

In Isaiah 42:16, God makes a very special promise to those who are blind, not a promise of healing, but a promise of his love and care. He says, "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know...I will make darkness light before them, and the crooked places straight. These things I will do for them and not forsake them."

4. Is blindness a punishment for sin?
John 9:1-41
When asked in John 9, whether a blind man had sinned, or his parents that he should have been born blind, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

B. J. LeJeune| careministries@bellsouth.net |