When Healing Doesn’t Look Like Healing

Jessica Frazier
Apr 1
3 min read

Updated: Apr 11

I watched a scene recently that stopped me in my tracks. A person was crying out to God for healing—earnest, sincere, and full of faith. But nothing changed. Not their body. Not the outcome. The miracle they believed for didn’t come the way they expected. And it made me think: how often do we struggle with God’s silence when we’re doing everything “right”? Did God not hear the person? Did He ignore their cry? Or... is it possible that healing came in a form no one expected?

We don’t talk enough about the kind of healing that doesn’t come with instant relief. The kind that doesn’t show up in our bodies or bank accounts but instead takes root in places we weren’t even looking—our hearts, our minds, our pride.

Healing that arrives not as a supernatural turnaround, but as a slow, painful maturity. As peace in the middle of the chaos. As surrender when strength runs out.

I want you to read John 5 with me today. When you do, you'll learn about a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years, lying by the Pool of Bethesda. He wasn’t just sick; he was forgotten. Passed by.

The text says, “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’” (John 5:6 NIV).

It’s a strange question. Of course, he wanted to get well. Or did he? Jesus wasn’t just confronting the illness. He was confronting the expectation. The man responds, not with a simple yes, but with an explanation: “I have no one to help me…”

Sometimes, we get so used to the idea that healing can only come one way—through that person, that method, that miracle—that we miss the Healer standing right in front of us. We assume healing must be physical. Immediate. Loud. But Scripture shows us healing can be spiritual, progressive, even disruptive.

Paul prayed three times for a thorn to be removed. God said no—and offered grace instead (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Job lost everything and never got a reason why. But in the end, he gained a clearer vision of God.
Even Jesus didn’t heal everyone in every town. Why? Because healing was never the goal—restoration was.

Healing may not come how we want, but it always comes with purpose. Sometimes, what we call unanswered is actually God answering on a deeper level.

Consider This

Are you open to God healing areas you didn’t ask Him to touch?
Have you limited what healing looks like in your life?
Could God be answering your prayer through peace, through counsel, through contentment, instead of through a miracle?

God is still a Healer, but He’s not a genie. He moves not only to restore, but to reveal. When healing doesn’t look like healing, we’re invited to trust His hand even when it’s unseen. Sometimes, the greatest miracle is not a changed circumstance, but a changed heart.

If you want to go deeper in your personal study time, here are some optional prompts I would like for you to reflect on:

Scripture Reading

John 5:1–15 — The healing at the Pool of Bethesda
2 Corinthians 12:7–10 — Paul’s thorn in the flesh
2 Kings 5:1–14 — Naaman’s healing
Job 42:1–6 — Job’s response after loss

Reflection Prompts

What area in your life have you been waiting for healing that hasn’t come in the way you hoped?
Can you identify a time when God worked in you instead of changing something around you?
What would healing look like if it started in your mindset, emotions, or trust—not in your situation?

Journal Today

Write a short letter to God about what you’ve been hoping for. Then write what you believe He might be teaching you in the wait.
Title a page: “Where I Still Need Healing” and let yourself write freely.

Blessings, Friend