One of the names of God is Jehovah-Rapha, “the Lord who heals.” So “Why doesn’t God always heal the sick when we pray for healing?” God is never surprised by the trials in our lives. God is sovereign and he is never caught off guard by our diagnoses of cancer. He knows our needs before we do and will supply us what we need when we need it. Mathew 6:26 states” Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”
Although we don’t need cancer, or even a cold, God sometimes uses these trials to refine us and bring us closer to him and closer to the person we were meant to be. So, in light of God’s sovereignty, and the fact that he knows what we need, our diagnosis of a disease might sometimes be a positive thing. I believe that things just happen because we are human and live in a fallen world. However, the big ticket items, like cancer, may in certain instances, be a blessing in disguise. Mark 8:26 states “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
What a tragedy to lose someone to cancer or some other terrible disease, but an even greater tragedy to lose a soul to grips of hell. C.S. Lewis stated it best when he said “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”