If God doesn’t heal a Christian, there’s always a reason. And he doesn’t play games. He’ll usually tell us why if we ask him.
The problem is, we don’t always like what he says. So, we may need other people to bring his truth to us.
This is why James 5 says that healing can involve confessing our sins to one another.
This isn’t surprising, as the bible frequently mentions sin and sickness together. And Jesus sometimes dealt with them together.
Few Christians confess their sins to one another and are ill as a result.
Tragically, I’ve seen many cases where people prefer sickness, and even early death, to transparency.
Jesus understands that it’s hard telling someone else your darkest stuff.
However, James doesn’t tell us confess our sin to everyone. Just to someone.
Sadly, trust can be a problem. Some Christians aren’t great at keeping confidences.
Some mistakenly share people’s personal information for ‘prayer’, which is just spiritual gossip.
Or they pass it on to their spouses, because they feel they should be transparent with them.
But my view is that they only need to be transparent about their own lives, not other people’s. They also have a legal responsibility not to share people’s confidences with anyone else.
If you can’t find someone trustworthy, then find a spiritual director or a good Christian counsellor.
Or even swallow your prejudices and arrange a confession with a priest!
Ultimately, it’s your choice – confession, or sickness.