(un)answered prayer?
Been a while. Not been ultra busy, but have had half term and have had a bit of a blip in the health thing...nothing too horrendous but enough to be spaced out on the meds again....ho hum.
Just finished a very interesting book, 'Healing and Deliverance' by John Woolmer.
I always approach any books about healing with slight trepidation as there is such a range of views, and I am, as a sufferer of a chronic lung condition, quite tired of premises such as no healing=no faith, or unconfessed sin, etc etc. This book provides a balanced and compassionate exploration of some of the issues around healing, and doesn't skirt round some of the nasty realities in this life, i.e that people, yes even Christians! - do get ill, do have accidents, do die. Not everyone is healed, and not everyone isn't. Is God not answering our prayers when we ask for healing and we are not healed? Woolmer seems to argue that yes, he is, simply not in the way that we would perhaps want him to. He talks a lot about healing being not simply about relieving physical symptoms, but about a whole life change - a more holistic view. He refers to many cases of medicine and complementary medicine working together with prayer for a person being part of a process of healing, though not necessarily ending in a full healing as such. In the end, as Christians we believe that death is not the end, and therefore we are only fully healed when we do die. Not an easy book to read, but it is fully of stories of amazing healings (eg see Jennifer Rees Larcombe). It documents healing through the Old and New Testaments, then through from the early church til today. It's very interesting reading and while not providing any easy answers it does have a lot to think about, and makes me feel that I am not healed not because God doesn't love me, but on the contrary because he does.....I will never understand this! I will (try to) never come to a bitter acceptance, more of a hope.....God can heal me, and God wants me to be whole, as he does everyone, and I will keep praying. Meanwhile, I am doing pretty well healthwise, having had the best winter in years, and thank God for this.
'For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I am also known' (1 Corinthians 13:12)
Just finished a very interesting book, 'Healing and Deliverance' by John Woolmer.
I always approach any books about healing with slight trepidation as there is such a range of views, and I am, as a sufferer of a chronic lung condition, quite tired of premises such as no healing=no faith, or unconfessed sin, etc etc. This book provides a balanced and compassionate exploration of some of the issues around healing, and doesn't skirt round some of the nasty realities in this life, i.e that people, yes even Christians! - do get ill, do have accidents, do die. Not everyone is healed, and not everyone isn't. Is God not answering our prayers when we ask for healing and we are not healed? Woolmer seems to argue that yes, he is, simply not in the way that we would perhaps want him to. He talks a lot about healing being not simply about relieving physical symptoms, but about a whole life change - a more holistic view. He refers to many cases of medicine and complementary medicine working together with prayer for a person being part of a process of healing, though not necessarily ending in a full healing as such. In the end, as Christians we believe that death is not the end, and therefore we are only fully healed when we do die. Not an easy book to read, but it is fully of stories of amazing healings (eg see Jennifer Rees Larcombe). It documents healing through the Old and New Testaments, then through from the early church til today. It's very interesting reading and while not providing any easy answers it does have a lot to think about, and makes me feel that I am not healed not because God doesn't love me, but on the contrary because he does.....I will never understand this! I will (try to) never come to a bitter acceptance, more of a hope.....God can heal me, and God wants me to be whole, as he does everyone, and I will keep praying. Meanwhile, I am doing pretty well healthwise, having had the best winter in years, and thank God for this.
'For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I am also known' (1 Corinthians 13:12)
posted by Carter Clan at 7:19 pm
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