I recently heard of an account of apparent physical healing as a result of praying in Jesus’ Name. This came through a friend of a friend of a friend. I found myself feeling skeptical immediately. Not because I don’t believe that Jesus does, in fact, exist…or that He no longer heals….but because of the way the whole account was described. I sometimes hear of undercurrents within Christendom where people will take 1 or 2 verses from scripture that seem to say something totally radical, and form their entire worldview around it. This happens a lot with healing. Jesus did, indeed say:
I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt.17:20)
“I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matt.18:19-20)
And James, the Lord’s half-brother, says:
“Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:13-16)
Yes, but.
Fill in the blank. Yes, but. What about the people who love God and actually follow Jesus with their lifestyle, and they die in a car crash, or lose a child to cancer? What about the people who get hurt in an accident, and then live in pain for the rest of their lives in spite of the prayers of the elders, and many others, for years? I believe all these scriptures, but I struggle because for every story I hear of miraculous healing there are several others where it doesn’t seem to “work.” What does that mean…that Jesus is a liar? That the Bible can’t be taken seriously? These are important questions, and it has to be OK to ask them. Too often, those of us who ask questions are condemned as blasphemous, and told to just shut-up and believe. Usually they say it nicer than that.
John, the Apostle closest to Jesus, says:
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
HIS WILL. What difference does that make? Huge. I think this verse sheds some light on the background code behind prayer. It’s not something we can manipulate, nor is it an easy 5-step program to get God to do whatever we want. Here are some of my beliefs about this. Feel free to agree or disagree….I’d like to hear from you:
- God DOES want us to pray for the miraculous, but not for the sake of the miracle…but for the sake of our believing dependence upon Him.
- God DOES heal and work miracles in Jesus’ Name…but not in every case because our prayers are often either selfish in nature/against His will for our character (“God, give me a new Camaro”) or they go against God’s foreknowledge/predestination that only He can see.
- You can’t build a solid theology about something without taking into account the “whole counsel of scripture.”
Why am I so passionate about this? Because often, well-meaning Jesus followers blast others because of their “lack of faith” when their prayers don’t work. Or they go to great lengths to develop & prescribe deeply detailed strategies for how & when to pray for stuff you want…almost like Jesus is at our beck & call. But this does not mean we should not pray in faith, or seek to have more faith to pray. Do you feel the tension between these two points? What say you?
