Over the last few months, I’ve had the honour to receive so many messages in all shapes and forms from people telling me they are praying for me. One or two came from people I didn’t even know but who had heard of my situation from mutual friends. The love and support which came through all these messages, together with the knowledge that others were just getting on quietly praying for my healing made such a difference!
But praying for healing is hard, complicated and can be disappointing – especially when we don’t get the answer we want. The most inspiring book I know on this subject is by Pete Greig – “God on Mute” – and like many I’ve found it inspirational and much to be recommended. He has had to live with the fact that his wife has to live with a chronic condition. The answer to his prayers has proved long and complex and at the first disappointing but has also resulted in deep blessing.
For healing is more than physical health. God in His love for us gave us human bodies and, however much we try, those bodies wear out. We can delay this by using all sorts of creams and potions to disguise our true age; medicine and surgery can extend that life. But what matters is this: our bodies will wear out, but the New Life and the New Body we are promised will be beyond our dreams and anything we can hope for.
If through the wonders of medicine and, yes, through prayer our lives are prolonged, we can know it is because there is still work for us to do to further the spread of the Kingdom and to share and witness to the saving grace and love of God.
And when we pray for healing, sometimes that healing is not physical. Emotional, mental and spiritual healing can be what is really needed and sometimes may be a need we’re not even aware of. When we pray for healing, we have to trust our Father to know what is the best healing at this time for that person. Sometimes as well we need to consider Paul’s remark in Philippians that he has a constant trouble which God has not taken from him but which he has to live with. “when I am weak, I am strong…” he says. It is wonderful how weakness can provide opportunities for witness!
So let us pray for healing. But let’s be aware that that prayer is powerful and may be answered in ways we cannot be aware of.
Prayer: Almighty God. We pray today for those in hospital and for the Chaplaincy Team in our local Hospital; giving thanks for the work they do in bringing your hope and love to patients and staff alike. Show us how to pray for healing; give us the words and the trust to know you answer prayer but in accord with your knowledge and in your mercy. Show us ways to encourage and bring your hope into situations which seem full of dark and despair. Shine your love into the lives of those who suffer and bring them into your rest in peace. In Jesus’ name. Amen