Pray for Healing

The Bible encourages us to pray for healing for each other. Jesus desires to have compassion on us and heal us of our diseases. Sometimes, as individuals, we can seek God and receive healing on our own, but the Bible gives some specific instructions on praying for each other to receive healing. God desires for us to share, support, and pray for each other.

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.

When I first began preaching, the pastor at my Aunt and Uncle's church gave me the opportunity to come and preach on several occasions. One Sunday morning while greeting people in the congregation before service a man told me a story of how he was recently healed. In about two minutes he exclaimed to me how he had liver disease to the point where his skin was already turning yellow. But he was on the prayer list at this church, that church, and the church over there. He had this person praying for him, that person praying for him, and before he knew it he was out of the hospital completely healed. I thought later that I should have just turned the service over to him and let him preach that morning. What he shared with me in those two minutes was much more powerful than what I shared in twenty minutes during my sermon.

To pray for healing in our prayer closet is a good thing, but most Biblical examples and teaching lead us to pray for the healing of others with them. This can be intimidating in many ways but the most obvious way is the thought of: 'What if they aren't healed when I pray?'

Jesus himself said praying for the sick wasn't easy. In Mark 2, Jesus heals a paralized man. He first forgives the mans sins and when people begin to criticize Jesus in their hearts he says:

Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'?

Jesus implied that praying for the sick is a harder thing to do than praying for someones forgiveness. If Jesus's prayer for the healing of this paralized man hadn't been answered at this instance he would have lost all credibility. Praying for healing takes courage! Jesus knows this and admires it when we will take a step of faith to pray for healing despite our fears.

Discouragement comes when we don't see results, but that doesn't mean our prayers are ineffective. The prayers of a righteous man or woman are always effective, and we are righteous because of what Christ has done for us. We can expect dramatic healings but not be disappointed when we don't see them. Sometimes our prayers might just bring an improvement and then someone else can pray to bring more improvement. Other times it takes a group of people praying for someone to receive healing. I know people who have received immediate instant healings and some who have received improvement to their condition as a result of prayer. Obviously the complete healing is most desired but let's thank God for all of his goodness we receive and keep on praying.