This is post 5 in our ongoing series reviewing pastor Bill Johnson’s book God Is Good: He is Better than You Think.
Pastor Bill Johnson tells a story about a woman he asked to pray for during a church service. She was suffering from cancer. Her reply was, “God has given me cancer to teach me patience.” To which Johnson replied, “If I treated my children that way, I would be arrested for child abuse.” The woman reconsidered, agreed to be prayed for and was healed.
We have taken much time in the past several posts discussing what is wrong with a theology that simply (and simplistically) regards God’s involvement in human suffering as child abuse, and also the dangers with that line of reasoning. But now we are going to turn things on their head and discuss what is right about such thinking.
The woman replied, “God has given me cancer to teach me patience.”