Misunderstanding 4: People with Disabilities Want Only Healing

This article is part of a series that addresses common misunderstandings about disability within the church. Each week, we examine one misunderstanding and reflect on it from biblical, theological, and pastoral perspectives. The goal is to seek ways for believers with disabilities and believers without disabilities to build a healthy church of the Lord together. In the previous article, we explored the misunderstanding that “disability is a punishment for sin,” “people with disabilities are objects of pity not partners,” and “people with disabilities cannot communicate with people without disabilities.”

In many churches there is a strong assumption that shapes how believers look at members with disabilities. When the church encounters a person with a disability, the first questions are often “Where does it hurt?” or “What would you like God to heal?” Whatever conversations happen during the week, the interaction frequently ends with, “We will keep praying for your healing.” It can almost seem as if the deepest desire of every person with a disability must always be physical healing. Under this way of seeing, their wider life and relationships, their calling and dreams, their joys and struggles are pushed to the background, while a presumed longing for healing is placed at the center.

Pastoral experience brings to mind scenes like the following. In a local congregation, there is a member who has used a wheelchair for many years. He carries responsibilities and concerns that are not very different from those of other adults in the church: relationships with coworkers, his children’s spiritual and emotional growth, the health of aging parents, questions about career and calling, and struggles in his walk with God. During small group sharing, he may want to ask for prayer about workplace conflict or his child’s faith. Yet as the group moves toward closing prayer, the leader consistently says, “Above all, let us pray for our brother’s healing.” He is genuinely grateful for these prayers, but he also feels emptiness. Other group members are invited to share widely about vocation, marriage, ministry, inner conflicts, and spiritual questions, but whenever attention turns to him, the focus narrows almost entirely to healing

Parents of children with developmental disabilities often describe similar experiences. Fellow church members sincerely want to help and frequently say, “We are praying for your child’s healing.” What the parents hope to share, however, includes much more: the joy and meaning they find in parenting, stories from school and friendships, and moments of gratitude their family has experienced together. In the past, they may have cried out intensely for healing. At this stage, they are often praying more for daily wisdom, for the support of a loving community, and for their child to grow into a person who loves God and neighbor. Yet the church tends to remember this family almost exclusively as “a prayer request for healing.” In such situations, people with disabilities and their families may feel less like they are loved in the fullness of their lives and more like they are being continually named as objects of healing.

Scripture does not deny that God is a healer or that prayer for healing is good and necessary. God reveals himself as the Lord who heals. In the Gospels, many people come to Jesus seeking healing, and he truly heals their diseases and pain. Yet when we look carefully at the stories, we see that Jesus never reduces a person to their need for physical restoration. In Mark 10, when Bartimaeus, a blind man, calls out to Jesus, the Lord asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51, NIV). Jesus already knows his desire, yet still chooses to ask and to listen. This reveals a posture that honors an individual’s voice, agency, and deepest longings.

In Luke 5, when friends lower a paralyzed man through the roof, Jesus first says, “Friend, your sins are forgiven” (Luke 5:20, NIV). He sees not only the man’s body but the deeper reality of reconciliation with God. In Luke 4:18–19, Jesus announces his mission: to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and liberty for the oppressed. Healing is a vital part of this mission, yet the salvation of God embraces body and spirit, relationships and community, worship and daily life. It is a much wider restoration than physical change alone.

The lives of believers with disabilities reflect this same complexity. Some still cry out for physical healing, because pain, fatigue, and limitations make daily life difficult. Their prayer for healing is entirely legitimate and expresses a faithful dependence on God. The concern of this reflection, however, is the way the church tends to assume that every believer with a disability is always and only defined by a longing for healing and then emphasizes that one theme above all others. For some, healing may indeed be their most urgent request. For others, it is one prayer topic among many. Still others may have entrusted the question of healing to the will of God and now focus more on receiving grace in other areas of their lives.

Above all, the fundamental purpose of every human life is to glorify God. Scripture teaches that to honor God and obey his will is the highest priority of human existence. The Lord declares, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isa. 43:7, NIV). The apostle Paul urges believers that even in the ordinary actions of life, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31, NIV). This purpose applies equally to people with and without disabilities and is not limited by any life situation or condition. In success or failure, health or pain, joy or sorrow, our calling does not change.

For this reason, the most fundamental prayer for believers with disabilities is that they may live to the glory of God. To that end, prayer for healing and strength may be important. Prayer for Scripture reading, spiritual disciplines, and growth in faith is also important. So too are prayers for supportive community, wise pastoral care, and practical help in daily life. All of these can serve the greater purpose of glorifying God. So how can the church correct the misunderstanding that assumes healing is always their only or primary desire?

First, churches need to recover the habit of listening carefully to the actual prayer requests of people with disabilities. Just as Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you,” congregations must learn to ask that question sincerely. One person may say, “I would love for this pain to decrease.” Another may say, “I really need a good friend.” Someone else may ask for prayer to find meaningful work they can do, while another might say, “Please pray that my family will not become exhausted.” The church should receive all these requests with equal dignity and seriousness, without assuming that one type of prayer must always come first.

Second, churches need to cultivate spaces for deep conversation. To know how to pray, we need to talk and listen over time. Congregations must intentionally move toward members with disabilities, and they must also become safe communities where those members feel free to draw near and speak honestly. This is not simply a matter of programs. The depth of conversation depends on how sincerely pastors and congregants desire real relationship and shared life. In small groups and fellowship settings, believers with disabilities should be given the same opportunity as others to share about work, family, inner struggles, joys, and hopes. The church should listen and then pray in concrete ways that reflect what was shared. When people with disabilities are seen as more than “objects of healing,” genuine conversation begins.

Finally, the church should pray for the restoration of shalom. The restoration God brings is never limited to a single part of life. Because of sin, humanity has been cut off from God, and this rupture has shaken our minds and hearts, our relationships and communities, the direction of our lives, and the center of our worship. Through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled to God and called into new life in the grace of the Holy Spirit. True restoration is more than the recovery of a function or an improvement in health. On the foundation of forgiveness and reconciliation, our hearts and worship are renewed as we trust God’s sovereignty and love. Relationships and community are rebuilt. Even in suffering, we are shaped into people who glorify God.

When the church regains this holistic vision, God’s shalom can enter the lives of believers with and without disabilities and of all who experience exclusion and marginalization in American society. As congregations pray not only for healing but also for relationships, calling, daily provision, and joy, people with disabilities will experience that their whole lives are open before God and before the church. Together, the community can seek God’s restoring work and grow as a redeemed people who reflect the gospel of Christ in a broken world.