MAX ON LIFE

64. I've asked God to heal me from cancer. He healed my friend from cancer, but so far he hasn't helped me. My friend says I should pray with more faith. Is she right?

Let me share with you two false notions people have about heavenly healing.

First, death is always bad. We see a hearse; we think sorrow. We see a grave; we think despair. We hear of a death; we think of a loss. Not so in heaven. When heaven sees the breathless body, it sees the vacated cocoon and the liberated butterfly. Ever since sin entered the world, the body has been doomed to die. Not only is death inevitable; death is necessary for us to inherit the new life we are to enjoy in Christ. "Flesh and blood cannot have a part in the kingdom of God... This body that can be destroyed must clothe itself with something that can never be destroyed" (1 Cor 15:50).

As long as we see death as a failure, then we will perceive God as being deaf to our prayers. Ask those in heaven if their prayers for healing were answered, and you might get a different perspective.

Second, prayer heals. God heals, not prayer. A matter of semantics? No. If you think the power is in the prayer and not the One who hears the prayer, you fault the pray-er for unanswered prayer. How many people have had to deal with the false guilt of inadequate prayer? "If I had prayed more, if I had prayed better, if I had prayed differently, if I had prayed in the chapel or with a priest or with rosary beads or with different words." To claim that prayer heals is to place prayer in the realm of magic chants and medicine man dances. Worse still, to place the power in the prayer relegates God to the personality of a computer. If I push the right buttons or type the correct code, he must respond.

No, the power of prayer is in the One who hears it, not the one who makes it.

Don't assume that the faithful will never suffer. If the faithful never suffer, how do we explain the illness of Paul (Gal 4:13), the poor health of Paul's friend Trophimus (2 Tim 4:20), and the near death of his beloved Epaphroditus (Phil 2:27).

Hebrews 11 describes the plight of God's faithful: some defeated kingdoms, stopped fires, and were saved from being killed. Others were put in chains and thrown into prison. They were stoned to death, they were cut in half, and they were killed with swords. Some wore the skin of sheep and goats. They were poor, abused, and treated badly.... All of these people are known for their faith (Heb 11:33-39).

If the faithful never suffer, how do we explain the agony of Gethsemane and the death of Christ on the cross? Jesus, himself, prayed to be delivered from earthly pain (Matt 26:39), and that request was denied. Was that due to a lack of faith? Absolutely not. God said no to the earthly prayer for a heavenly reason. The plan of salvation was worth the pain of the Savior. There are times when God chooses to say no to the earthly request so he can say yes to the heavenly one.

Doesn't he still do that today? Doesn't he use the challenge of the body to strengthen the soul? We need to remember that Peter was in a storm before he walked on water, Lazarus was in a grave before he came out of it, the demoniac was possessed before he was a preacher, and the paralytic was on a stretcher before he was in your Bible (Matt 14:23; John 11:1-44; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 5:17025). We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28).

Please don't interpret the presence of your disease as the absence of God's love. I pray he heals you, and he will, ultimately.

By: Max Lucado