Week 6, Day 39 - What about Physical Healing?

"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."          James 5:14-15

REFLECT

Does physical healing actually occur? Does it make sense to pray for physical healing? And if so, when? For minor illnesses? For terminal conditions? The simple answer to the question is: yes. The Bible says that any child of God may come to God at any time, asking for what seems to be good.

The simple truth is that we know we live in a world of health and illness. We have bodies that function well sometimes, but often get sick and someday will die. We also know we recover from illnesses all the time and that the body is healing itself in ways that we aren't even aware of. Who can know how many times a person in an average lifespan is healed from vicious viruses to bone fractures to malignant cells? A thousand times? Ten thousand times? None of us knows for sure. God's healing work is going on invisibly all the time. God's healing power working through protective white blood cells is the same power through which Jesus healed blind people - the one is just more typical than the other. "Supernatural" in comparison with "natural" is just a matter of frequency. God is Lord of both realms.

So when James says in his epistle that when we are seriously ill we should have people pray for us, we are simply entrusting ourselves to God. We do this knowing that there are many natural healing processes that go on (including medical treatment) and that supernatural healing is always a possibility. There is no better thing for us to do whenever distress happens in life than to place ourselves in the care of the God who created us and loves us. That's what "the prayer of faith" means. It is not to force healing, but to entrust ourselves to God.

And this "prayer of faith" will, typically, make the sick person well.

James' words in the New Testament are like the Proverbs in the Old Testament - they both say what "typically" will happen. And in fact, we are healed from most attacks on our bodies in our lifetimes. Yet whether we are physically healed or not, we can look to God to "raise us up" - to have hope where others would be hopeless.

MAKE IT REAL

Make a list of a variety of ways in which you've needed physical healing in your life (whether illness or injury). Reflect on the list and take a few minutes to praise God for ways he has held you up, and also pray for ways you need healing today.

Day 40