Healing prayer seems dumb to me
At the risk of alienating a few people, I’m gonna throw this out there: healing prayer seems to be full of crap 99% of the time.
Here’s my deal: I’ve heard stories of miracles happening in people’s lives when they are prayed over for healing. It’s even happened to people I know. But I’ve also noticed that people pray for healing a lot more than it actually happens.
Sometimes I wonder if the more charismatic Christians forget that praying to God is not a way to get your wishes granted. Remember how Jesus told us to pray “Thy will be done”? That’s because it’s up to God to do the healing, not anything we do. So why do people pray over others for healing then act a bit disappointed when nothing happens? I’ve seen that a few times. Or worse, they say something to the effect of “well, sometimes it takes a little while.” Yeah. That’s called healing. You know, the kind that happens to all normal humans whether or not they pray to God or even believe in Him.
From what I’ve observed, it seems more like God sometimes works miracles in people’s lives, and sometimes it happens while someone is praying, so they assume their prayer had a significant role in the healing when God was going to do it anyway. I sometimes even wonder if it’s a little joke He plays just to throw people off. Yeah, I know. I’m terrible.
Sorry, call me a doubter or a cynic or whatever, but sometimes I feel like people are highly unrealistic about the whole thing. I probably just opened up a can of worms I’ll wish I never touched, but it’s how I feel.
Please don’t take this as an excuse to not pray if you are the praying type. Rather, see it as raising awareness of the fact that we don’t have special powers. Even if we have the faith to move mountains, sometimes God would rather we didn’t.
Hey Josh –
Here are a couple of thoughts for you. I know exactly what you mean and how you feel, but I would personally be a little nervous using such strong language regarding healing. Yea, Christians do go overboard, and yes we also make some wrong assumptions regarding healing and such, but that doesn’t erase the fact that healing is definitely addressed in scripture as something that we have access to and can claim through Christ’s death (Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 8:16) and we are exhorted to pray for one another for healing by Paul in the new testament. Paul addresses healing several times, and even gives specifics on how prayers and petitions for healing are to be made (call the elders).
All that to say is that Christ died for our physical healing and that is fact proven through scripture. The other fact is that Christians do sometimes get carried away and yes it is extremely annoying. The key for me, is to embrace the truth of scripture without letting myself become cynical and jaded because of some peoples ignorance and arrogance (myself included at times.) I’m loving reading your stuff man…Take Care! -Will
Comment by Will McCabe — August 19, 2009 @ 8:13 pmJosh,
Prayer is primarily a posture of child-like dependent relationship with God. I do not agree that God plans that we have 100% healthy bodies and that all we have to do is want it badly enough and claim it by faith through prayer. I am not familiar with scriptures that clearly indicate that we are invited to “claim” a specific healing.
I do not understand why a major aspect of Jesus’ earthly ministry was miraculous healing, while we in America see very little of it. I hear of miraculous healings in other parts of the world more than in our own. I have wondered if we have an indictment against us as those in Chorazin. Perhaps we are like those in Nazareth, where Jesus did not stay long because “a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country.” In other words, we are so familiar with him that we expect little from him and we would explain it away as some other phenomenon anyway.
We are free to ask God for healing, however, while remaining in a state of dependence on His will for us.
I think I’m more worried about why God chooses not to heal than I am about those who “foolishly” pray for healing.
Comment by Corliss Mock — August 19, 2009 @ 9:16 pmI tend to believe that healing can be “claimed” based on promises in scripture. Not necessarily a specific healing but a dependence on the truth that God “paid” for our healing through the death of Jesus. This was his way of bringing creation back into perfect union with Himself. This includes our physical healing.
That being said, I don’t know why God chooses not to heal sometimes. Maybe it has to do with our faith. Paul talks in the New Testament about the “prayer offered in faith will make the sick man well.” What I do know about healing that I see and hear about in other countries, is that those people are desperate. Maybe our problem is that we aren’t desperate enough!
I like Andrew Murray’s take on healing…
“The promise of James 5:14-15 is so absolute that it is impossible to deny it. This promise only confirms other passages, equally strong, that tell us that Jesus Christ has obtained for us the healing of our diseases because He has borne our sicknesses.”
Don’t get me wrong here. I am not all about the name and claim it philosophy held by some in Christian circles, but I am all about holding onto promises made clear in scripture. I have been prayed for, for healing many times, and I can honestly say, I have never been instantly healed at any time. What I can’t explain is that given that fact, I still fully believe and expect God to heal me when I ask Him to.
Comment by Will McCabe — August 20, 2009 @ 10:26 pm