If you’ve been part of the Christian community for a while, there are probably a few phrases that are thrown around that have just become part of the Church experience. Some of these only make sense within the Christian context, like “lay hands on”, “hedge of protection”, “life group”, and “washed by the blood”. Outside of the body of Christ, these phrases may seem a bit confusing! This is what is fondly called “Christianese”. While many Christianese phrases are Biblically based and helpful, there are a few sayings and beliefs that have seeped into the Church that are neither. As Christians, we are representatives of God to the whole world which is why it’s important for us to make sure that we filter our beliefs through the Bible so that we don’t lead anyone astray. I’m going to discuss three common phrases in the Church that may cause more harm than good.
1. “Everything happens for a reason.” This phrase is often said to people who are grieving or experiencing a major challenge. While well-meaning, this saying can cause some real damage. It insinuates that God intended for tragedies to happen. Thoughts that may circulate in the heads of the recipient may be, “So God wanted my brother to commit suicide?”, “God caused my chronic illness?”, or “Jesus intended for my spouse to cheat on me?”. This phrase can cause people to question if God is good. Does God really care if he causes people pain?
Biblical truth: These words are never stated in the Bible, however, there are verses that address hardship and God’s response to them.
· “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28 (NLT).
· “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.[ He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.” Isaiah 6:1-3
These verses state that God can redeem any situation for those who love him. For example, my dad was hospitalized for three months with COVID. This was an extremely hard time for my entire family and the effects of his hospitalization are long-lasting. Despite the hardship of this situation, God is using his testimony to express His amazing healing and faithfulness. I remember visiting him 1 week before he was scheduled to have a brain scan that the doctors’ thought would confirm that he didn’t have any brain activity. There was little hope that my dad would wake up. God miraculously healed him and now his story is used to build the faith of all who hear it. This situation was awful, but God is bringing out goodness in the wake of pain.
2. “You just need to have more faith.” This phrase is often used to instruct Christians with mental health challenges. Many people have a hard time understanding how someone who loves God and has faith in Him can also battle depression, anxiety, or eating disorders. “You probably just need to pray more” or “Are you really believing with all your heart that God will heal you?” are other variations that express this belief. This is damaging because it blames the person for their health issues. As a Psychology major, I’d like to clear a few things up about mental health disorders. Mental health challenges are involuntary, they are impacted by and influence the entire body, are legitimate medical illnesses, and cannot be cured simply by “changing your mindset”. There is a whole mind, body, and spirit connection involved with mental illnesses which involves a lot of factors. Read this if you’d like to read more about the association between physical and mental health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3866391/
Biblical truth: Elijah is an example of a man with strong faith who also experienced depression. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah had just finished a display of God’s power as God lit the altar on Mt. Carmel that Elijah had drenched in water while Baal’s altar remained unlit. The miracle on Mt. Caramel is one of Elijah’s most famous stories of his faith in God. However, the queen, a devout follower of Baal, was furious and threatened Elijah’s life. He ran in fear to a cave and asked God to end his life. How could a man of such strong faith become helpless so quickly? Thankfully, God didn’t leave Elijah in the pit of despair. Read 1 Kings 19 to see how Elijah’s story turned out!
I share this to prove that even the most faith-filled Christians can struggle with their mental health, thus, the “have more faith” advice doesn’t work.
3. “Healing only happens at the alter call”. This last point needs a bit more clarification. Does healing happen at alter calls? ABSOLUTELY! I have seen and heard of many people getting healed at my church and churches around the globe at healing services and altar calls. Part of our job as the Church is to be a place of healing. However, I’ve noticed that we sometimes get stuck thinking that healing only happens at the altar and instantaneously. That’s where I see the danger of this belief. Healing is not a magic spell where a pastor says the right words with soft music in the background and moody lighting. There’s no one-fits-all recipe for healing. This I know from personal experience.
As I talked about earlier, I saw my Dad get miraculously healed from COVID, so I know for a fact that God heals. My Dad was hospitalized for a while and miraculously woke up days before his brain scan. It truly was miraculous healing! You can imagine my confusion and hurt when prayers for my own healing weren’t answered in a similar fashion. My healing is slow and not linear. I work hard doing what I can in my own power and pray for God to cover the rest. It’s a long process. I’ve become discouraged many times. I was expressing my plight to a woman wiser than me who referenced Mark 8:22-16.
Biblical truth: In Mark 8, a blind man was brought to Jesus so that he may touch the blind man and be healed. Surely, those who brought the blind man to Jesus had heard stories of people being instantly healed by a touch of his hand and expected the same thing for the blind man. However, Jesus chose to take the blind man by the hand and walk with him outside of the village. Jesus then spits on his own hand before covering the blind man’s eyes. At first, the blind man could only see the world through blurry vision. Jesus placed his hand on the man’s eye again and then he was able to see clearly.
This approach is so different from many of the other ways that Jesus healed people! In Luke 8:43-48 women didn’t even need to touch Jesus to be healed; she just grabbed his robe. If this is the same Jesus that can heal through the smallest touch of his robe, then why did he go through the trouble of taking the blind man out of the city, and touching his eyes twice?
The woman who told me this story remarked how special it was that Jesus singled this man out to walk with him. Thousands of people were vying for Jesus’ attention, but he broke away from them all to have one-on-one time with this blind man. It would be like your favorite actor walking down the red carpet at a premier, stopping in the middle of their interview once they see you, and leaving all the reporters and photographers behind to take a walk with you. That’s incredible! Perhaps, God wants to walk with us amid our brokenness and pain. Maybe this one-on-one time is part of the journey that leads to our healing.
I don’t always understand God’s actions or the reason behind them. I often come to him with plans of how and when he will heal me and others, but God’s plans usually look a lot different than mine. What I do know is that God is intentional. Look at Psalm 139:13-16:
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (ESV)
The fact that God created each one of us with such loving intentionality makes me believe that he is putting as much intention into how he heals us. It wasn’t by accident that Jesus took the blind man for a walk before healing him and I don’t think it’s an accident that he’s taking me on one either. Therefore, it’s time for us to ditch the idea that God only heals under certain circumstances and in our own time frames. His plans are greater than ours (Isaiah 55:9).
Why should we even care?
Words are just words, so why does it matter what we say? Did anyone ever tell you “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” when you were a kid? Well, the Bible disagrees with this statement.
Words can:
· Control the direction of our lives (James 3:3-11)
· Have the power to give life or death (Proverbs 18:21)
· Can bring healing or pain (Proverbs 12:1 and Proverbs 15:4)
If our words have so much power, don’t you think we should be careful about how we use them? Being aware of the power of our words and filtering them through the Bible helps us to encourage life and healing to all who hear us (including ourselves!). I hope this post ignites in you the desire to filter our speech through God’s word to bring truth, life, and healing to our broken world.
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