As a pastor, I constantly deal with the disappointment of believers who have experienced some tragedy or a when a deep desire of someone’s heart has not yet been met in prayer. The question in their heart, whether spoken or not, is whether God really cares about their pain and did he have some hand in what happened? Sometimes you can’t improve on what another person says. I want to share an extended quote from Bill Johnson this morning that speaks to that question. Bill is a pastor on the west coast who has a world-wide ministry of healing. His church has seen countless people with cancer healed by the power of God, but his own father died of cancer.

“In spite of our many breakthroughs with others, I arrived at my own Valley of Baca when my dad died of cancer following a six-month battle. It was as though I pushed against a thousand-pound rock for six months; it never budged. Spiritual disease can set in when any of us has disappointment that is not brought into the open for God’s healing touch. ‘Hope deferred, makes the heart sick’ (Pov.13:12). I knew that allowing disappointment to dominate my heart would cause a blindness of my eyes to the hand of God working in me.

Strengthening myself in the Lord helped me to stay away from anxiety long enough to make an important discovery: next to the thousand-pound rock is a five hundred-pound rock that I couldn’t have moved before the battle for my dad’s life. Pushing against the rock that never moved actually strengthened me by reinforcing my resolve to live in divine purpose and to establish the backbone of perseverance. By refusing to change my focus, I discovered that I can now move the five hundred-pound rock that I couldn’t have moved before the battle. To keep myself from the sickness of heart warned about in Proverbs 13:12, I monitored the attitude of my heart. This was one way of turning my valley of weeping into springs of refreshing, for it is from the heart that all the issues of life flow (Prov.4:23).

I can’t afford to have thoughts in my head that aren’t in God’s. It’s a great misconception that God gives cancer – He doesn’t have it to give. I refuse to blame God for my dad’s cancer or any other calamity in life, for that matter. We simply live in a world of conflict and sin. Bad stuff happens. While I may not understand why, I do understand that neither God nor his covenant is deficient.

While God is big enough to use every situation for his glory, it doesn’t mean that the given problem was his will. Not everything that happens in life is God’s will. We must stop blaming him. The cornerstone of our theology is the fact that God is always good and is the giver of only good gifts…there is no evil or darkness in him.

His goodness and faithfulness become the focus of my praise. I celebrate those aspects of his nature during what sometimes appear to be contradictory circumstances. After my dad’s death, I discovered the privilege of giving God a sacrificial offering of praise that I will never be able to give him in eternity. My offering was given in the midst of sadness, disappointment, and confusion – none of which I will ever experience in Heaven. Only in this life will we be able to give an offering with that kind of fragrance” (Bill Johnson, Strengthening Yourself in the Lord, p.151-152, DestinyImage).

I felt someone my need that good word this morning. Be blessed today in the One who only gives good gifts.