James 5:14-18.
5:14. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
5:15. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
5:16. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
5:17. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
5:18. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
Healing and Forgiveness
To start at the bottom and work my way up. God answers prayer. Sometimes it is blatant and obvious, as with Elijah’s prayers over the rains. The prayers of men, and women of course, can actually heal the sick. That may sound crazy and unscientific.
What is science though? The study of nature. Who invented nature? God. We do well to go to doctors, take medicines, and enjoy the blessings of the knowledge that men have accumulated. Times come when the best knowledge of men isn’t enough. Why not pray to the one who invented nature to begin with? There is nothing to lose.
People in Bible times believed that sickness and disability was sent due to sin in that person’s life. To be healed, they needed forgiveness. To the modern mind, we say, “How quaint and superstitious.” There are certainly germs, viruses, chemical imbalances, and many other things that can break through our immune systems to make us sick. Sometimes though, doctors just don’t know what is causing an illness.
Sometimes a patient gets well, in spite of the doctors treatment, and prognosis for doom.
Sure, it could be what’s called ‘psychosomatic’. Mind over body. The mind thinks the body is sick, so it begins showing symptoms. The mind thinks it is well, and the body gets well. That doesn’t mean the person is a ‘hypochondriac’, a person who is not sick at all but thinks he is. Or claims sickness to gain attention.
A person can be actually sick, and have the tests to document it, yet because he sets his mind on conquering it. He does. Praying to God can bring about a peace of mind. A release from stress, and a conquering of bodily ailments because of our attitude, brought on by prayer. What about unbelievers who don’t pray? Believe it or not, studies have been done along that line. Even people who didn’t pray, when they had others who were praying for them, tended to get better over others who had no one praying for them. Especially when the sick person had no idea they were being prayed for.
Prayer works. People of Bible times believed healing came once sins were forgiven. Is there something to that? I don’t know. The Bible says that prayer works. Try it.
Some diseases, or disabilities, are just not meant by God to be cured. Hey, none of us live forever. Still, when prayer over the sick is done, the quality of life can be elevated beyond any medical explanation. A person could have medical test results that make doctors look at you and say, “people with better results than yours are dead. Why are you still living, and why are you living as well as you are?” Prayer works.