Still Happening
“I will keep you in my prayers.” she said, and others said, “I will too; I will pray for you.” Such are the good and important wishes of friends who care, and who have relationships with God. Such are people who have prayer as one of their life habits. We want healing for others. We want to pray and see it make a difference. How can we go about it? It was James the Elder in Jerusalem, in his Epistle, who wrote about effective prayer:
Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up, and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. —James 5:13-16
Linger on that last two phrases: “…pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” The right relationship with God makes our prayers effective and powerful. Knowing that God is God, loving enough to connect with us: to let us be conduits for healing power to reach others. Remember the sixth beatitude, Matthew 5:8? “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”. Dropping all the ego that we can purify the heart; within our truer selves, we come to see God and act in love and grace. I need oceans of God’s purifying grace so that my prayers might be prayers of the righteous.
And what about healing? We read and absorb the healing events of Jesus in the Gospels. We read of the wonders of healing the apostles brought about in Acts. Can we see healing like that resulting from our turning to God? I go out on a limb and claim, healing is still happening. Again, we turn to James for some clarifying teaching:
You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. —James 4:2c & 3
It seems we must make it our constant goal to have God as the center of our requests in prayer and never our selfish selves. God is good and brings about the righteous will of the All-loving One. We pray for others out of love. We keep ourselves out of the way. I am now trying a method of prayer where I clearly visualize the healing we know about from the New Testament. I envision it and name it in my mind as a preparation for my prayer for others. Recall Jesus giving sight to Bartimaeus, healing the ten lepers, and raising the young boy from Nain. Remember him unstopping the ears of the deaf man, unloosing his tongue for speech, and instructing the lame man to pick up his mat and walk. Let the grace of those events flow into the situation for which you are praying. Let that light penetrate the one you are praying for.
This practice makes me think of a hymn that is good even if it is not too familiar. Read through it and let it pull together the healing Jesus did with the healing you desire and ask for today:
Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old was strong to heal and save;
It triumphed o'er disease and death, o'er darkness and the grave.
To thee they went, the blind, the dumb, the palsied, and the lame,
the leper with his tainted life, he sick with fevered frame.
And lo! thy touch brought life and health, gave hearing, strength, and sight;
And youth renewed and frenzy calmed owned thee, the Lord of light:
And now, O Lord, be near to bless, almighty as of yore,
In crowded street, by restless couch, s by Gennesaret's shore.
Be thou our great deliverer still, thou Lord of life and death;
Restore and quicken, soothe and bless, with thine almighty breath:
To hands that work and eyes that see, give wisdom's heavenly lore,
That whole and sick, and weak and strong, may praise thee evermore.
[Hymn 567 – Words: Edward Hayes Plumptre (1821-189)]
