It's funny where your blog posts end up. I'm not surprised to find some of them on anti-Christian websites but I was surprised that my recent post on suffering was such an example.

The person behind the Why Wont God Heal Amputees blog picked up my post and offered a rebuttal (one that I only found accidentally, they did not try to engage me in any sort of dialogue). Here is their post.  

And here is the reply I left for them.

First, you are correct, I did not see the person healed personally but I have no reason to doubt the account which was first hand. The person was certainly not faking her leg length for 30 odd years before she received healing and was praying for most of her adult life for that healing.

Secondly, you very conveniently skipped over the fact of my first hand account of healing. It was not a sham perpetuated by a hoax artist, nor was it some euphoria and emotional manipulation (I have seen that and it is quite damaging to a person). No, I experienced instant healing from alcohol abuse and the damage it caused to my organs.

I haven't read anymore of your blog besides this post as it relates to me but I will answer your question. Why wont God heal amputees? Why should he? That's not me being capricious but the same question people have been asking for thousands of years. It's even biblical.

The book of Job which I am sure you have read is about a guy afflicted and who runs the gamut of questions from "Is it my fault? What did I do?" to "Is God just tormenting me for fun?"

The lesson from that story, and the telling one for me is God's response. "Who are you?"

As a Christian I take it on a matter of trust that God does indeed have a plan and purpose for suffering and is objective to see that it is not wasted or for nothing even if we never figure out what it was used for.

In my experience (as I posted on my blog), suffering leads us to surrender and to growth.

> I do not believe for a minute that God wants us to be suffering and that it is his will for us to suffer but I can say that those times he allowed me to stay in the pain of my circumstance, I grew.

> This does not mean that we should cease praying for healing of the sick and otherwise afflicted but we should also be mindful that God often uses our circumstances to draw us closer to him. I don't believe that makes him capricious, I think that he knows best.

What can you learn from times of suffering?