An Interesting Conversation - Part 1

While visiting Robert on his birthday I had an interesting conversation. It started when Ate Sylvia asked, "What religion are you?" I told her that I am born again because that seems to be the best identifier for Christians to use here. This helps to keep Christian from being confused with false or non-Christian groups. However, saying that your 'born again' can get you confused with faith healers, which is what Sylvia did, because she then asked me, "Can you heal Robert?" I looked across at Robert as he sat near the railing of the bridge with his legs hanging limp. Now, I don’t believe that we can demand healing from God, or that the gift of healing at will is normal for today. However, I do know that God can heal anytime that He wants and does heal today when He wants to.

I was ready to pray for Robert’s healing and I confidently believe that if God wanted to, He would heal him. For some reason, I wasn’t even nervous at the thought. If it was not God’s will to heal Robert now, I would not be embarrassed to pray for it and find that the answer is no. It would be God who said no, not me. It would be God who chose not to demonstrate His power and not a failure on my part. I know that I am just the messenger and that He is in control and knows what He is doing. At the same time, I would not have been surprised if God decided to do a miracle and restore Roberts’s legs! I could see God using that circumstance to show the people of the bridge His power and His love for them. I could see God using that to draw attention to Himself so that they would pay attention to the gospel and believe.

Well, before I could agree to pray for Robert, Ate Sylvia just keep talking away about different beliefs. She seemed to forget her request and said that Robert told her that he had many questions for me, but was unable to ask them because of my limited ability to speak Tagalog. I believe my heart was right and that my faith wasn’t lacking, but we didn’t get the opportunity to see if God was going to grant a miracle that day. Perhaps He kept her talking because He has another plan other than healing to make Himself known to the people at the bridge. I was able to understand and discuss a few of their questions, but I told them that soon I would bring with me a friend who was fluent in Tagalog and who would answer all their questions. They were happy with that and proceeded into a second interesting conversation, which I will write about next time. Click here to read Part 2