Thoughts on healing
Yesterday I heard someone talk about how if you are sick you should pray for healing and then God will heal you. If this doesn’t happen then keep praying because eventually he will bring healing. I really struggle with this. What about the people who are sick with something like cancer, organ failure, cystic fibrosis etc? The parents who are desperately praying for their critically ill child? The child who is a full time carer to one of his parents? These people pray and pray but receive no healing. Is it because they don’t have enough faith? Is it because there is sin in their life? Or is there a healing, but it’s just not in the physical form we expect?
Sonja wrote an excellent post yesterday called Losing My Religion. She expresses her thoughts in a wonderful way, where I get lost for words and tongue tied. Now there is nothing wrong with praying, it’s a great and awesome way of communicating and hearing from God, I’m all for prayer. Maybe I am losing my religion (maybe that’s a good thing – I’d much rather just have my faith!), but I can’t simply go along with the “if you’re not being healed then you’re obviously not praying hard enough” blurb, it just doesn’t seem that black and white to me ……
faith, healing, losing my religion, prayingabout
Posted on July 30, 2007
Posted by lynhallewell
Amen, sister. I don’t think anything about God is as black and white as some folks would like to believe.
I do think that will be the #1 question when people meet God face to face – “Why heal some and not others?”
I think our best response here on earth is “I don’t know. Only God knows.” But I do think it is “losing our religion” when we stop feeling the need to try to explain why bad things happen and admit we don’t have the answer.
I think the point made was “if not healed at first, then don’t give up praying.” There a bit in the bible where the disciples ‘fail’ to deliver someone bound up in oppression. When they ask Jesus why, he said that “some things only happen with prayer and fasting.” i.e. pressing in.
Now, this doesn’t mean we’ll always see healing, or that if we don’t, it’s because we don’t pray hard enough. BUT while we want to see healing, and we know God can, it is good to ‘press in.’ If prayer has no effect then theres no need to pray at all, but if it does change things, then we (or at least I) need to pray more.
definately. I agree wholeheartedly.
I don’t think it’s black and white either and Jon gives a useful clarification, altho it’s interesting how we can hear these things and what it brings up in us…
i’m crap at prayer, even at the best of times (which is usually the worst of times) but i like to think that at some point God will heal me – my praying reflects my belief that one day i not only get my humanity back but also my body back – all fully restored – in the meantime my prayers reflect a faith that says god i’d really broken here, i can’t fix`myself but i trust you with this part of me.
well at my best i do at my worst i just complain or ask god to take me home and skip all this trying crap – but i think that’s valid prayer too
Thanks for your comments everyone, I can’t individually reply as I’m getting ready to leave for Scotland. Great points, I guess we just keep pressing in. I’m so glad of God’s grace