[ZNPaaneah]

Perhaps I can share an experience that I think illustrates both the failure of the term and the correctness of it as well.

My mom, who is 86, had a stroke this summer. I received a message around 9am, so I needed to drive to Albany, about 4 hours away. However, that morning I had noticed I had a flat tire so I needed to get that fixed first, which took me several hours. While on the highway the rain was very intense, so intense I could just barely make out the taillights of the car in front of me. I arrived at 4 pm. My brothers were there. They had done a CT scan which identified a blood clot in her brain. She was paralyzed on one side and couldn't speak. I think many would refer to these three events (the stroke, the rain and the flat) as "sovereign of the Lord".

However, while driving to Albany it occurred to me as I was praying "when is it ever not the Lord's will to heal?" (We can confuse the Lord being sovereign over something with this is His will.) In the gospels it says that "He takes our infirmities on Him and by His stripes we are healed", this is his job description as the messiah. So, I am a teacher, if someone came to me and said "if it is your will you can teach my son" that would be absurd. It better be my will or else I will get fired. So instead, in the gospels the Lord asks "do you believe that I am able to do this?" The person said yes. Then He said "as you have believed so let it be done unto you". That is the Lord's will, as we have believed it would be done unto us.

So the next morning we return to the hospital and my mom is better. She can talk, she is no longer paralyzed, and an MRI revealed the blood clot was gone. But my sister who is in Colorado calls, not realizing she is better and she asks me "when will I ever be able to talk to my mom normal again?" Well I thought to myself when I heard that "we have been asking that question for 30 years". But I didn't say that, instead I said "you can talk to her normal right now" and handed the phone to my mom.

So I would say that it was sovereign that my mom got sick, it was also sovereign that I could spend that time in the word to get the understanding, and it was sovereign that this helped the relationship between my mom and my sister.