Does Everything Happen for a Reason?<\/a>“<\/p>\nWill God heal illnesses? Yes, if such healing fits within His plan. “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him<\/em>” (James 5:14-15). Does this mean everyone will be healed? No. There are times when an illness serves a purpose, such as Paul learned: “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me–to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me<\/em>” (II Corinthians 12:7-9).<\/p>\nGod has told us what He desires and plans: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification<\/em>” (I Thessalonians 4:3). However, God has left it up to each individual to decide whether he will submit to God’s plan or rebel.\u00a0“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure<\/em>” (Philippians 2:12-13).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: Hello, How have you been lately? May God bless you. I would like to ask a question: Will God heal illnesses caused by sin? (I believe that everything is in God’s hands.) After all, if God has chosen someone, He will see it through to the end-is that right? God’s plans are beyond human…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[885,562,354],"class_list":["post-96681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-illness","tag-predestination","tag-responsibility"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":85969,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-didnt-paul-heal-trophimus-or-epaphroditus\/","url_meta":{"origin":96681,"position":0},"title":"Why didn’t Paul heal Trophimus or Epaphroditus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, sir, May Almighty God continue to bless and strengthen you. My question is: If the Apostle Paul still had the power to heal, why would he leave Trophimus sick, while Epaphroditus was also sick to the point of death in Philippians 2:27, and encouraged Timothy to use\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81895,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-mental-illness-a-spiritual-or-physical-condition\/","url_meta":{"origin":96681,"position":1},"title":"Is mental illness a spiritual or physical condition?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! I am very grateful to God for having found your site, and I have been learning a lot. What I like most is that your answers are teachings from the Bible and not just your own opinion. May God continually bless you,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21242,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-satan-behind-mental-illnesses\/","url_meta":{"origin":96681,"position":2},"title":"Is Satan behind mental illnesses?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Questions: Hello, I was flipping through the pages of a small book filled with handwritten verses loved ones made for me when I was in the psychiatric hospital. I still read through it from time to time, and tonight I found a small piece of paper tucked in a hard-to-notice\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19454,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-pray-without-doubt-when-i-know-that-sometimes-i-wont-get-what-i-prayed-for\/","url_meta":{"origin":96681,"position":3},"title":"How can I pray without doubt when I know that sometimes I won’t get what I prayed for?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about prayer.\u00a0 I understand that the Bible states that when we pray, we are to let our requests to God be given in faith,\u00a0 believing that we will receive. So if I pray that God will help me through a difficult time or give me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26513,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-there-truly-be-no-more-sickness\/","url_meta":{"origin":96681,"position":4},"title":"Will there truly be no more sickness?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi minister, Please I would like to ask about Isaiah 33:24. Is it truly saying that there will be sickness no more as the Jehovah's Witnesses claim? Answer: Both the nations of Israel and Judah have become involved in rampant sin. They had gotten complacent (Isaiah 32:9-11). They were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20317,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-jesus-have-cured-people-through-the-placebo-effect\/","url_meta":{"origin":96681,"position":5},"title":"Could Jesus have cured people through the placebo effect?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Recently I have been reading a book that discusses something called \"mind-body medicine\" where it emphasizes examples in past history where people were cured of their health-related illnesses by having faith in themselves to heal. They simply hoped in their mind that they can heal and they healed. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96681\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}