Question: I have been praying for healing, and God has not answered my prayers yet. Could it be because of something wrong I have done? Is this a punishment from God? Doesn’t the Bible say that God sends miracles to help people who pray?
Answer: God always keeps His promises, and the Bible says He hears the prayers of all people and responds according to His will for their lives. In James 5:16, Paul writes: Confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (New Kings James version)
Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results. (Living Bible version)
Old Testament scriptures reveal the common belief that sickness was a result of a person’s sin, which was not always the case. In the New Testament, Jesus and His disciples healed many people who came to them, believers and unbelievers, and this healing was meant to authenticate Jesus’ power over disease and even death, to point to Him as the Messiah that Israel had been anticipating. On the other hand, Paul wrote that God had chosen not to heal him, even though he prayed numerous times (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Most of us know that God still miraculously heals people today because we know someone personally who received such a miracle, a life that was saved even after doctors said there was no more they could humanly do!
God decides for Himself whether healing is in His plan for someone’s life. Amazingly, when He does, God heals directly, with or without our prayers. Many times, He uses the medical profession to help us. Jesus taught His disciples to pray for what God knows is best for the future of everyone:
…your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Luke 11:2
God always hears your prayers when you ask for His help. Does He send healing any time that you ask for it? Not everything you ask for fits in with God’s plan for the future He has planned for you and for others. As God had greater purposes to be accomplished through Jesus’ healings, He has greater, eternal purposes for bringing people across your path who are need of healing. Pray for the healing of the sick, but, more importantly, pray for them to become believers, if they are not. Ask God for His ultimate purposes to be accomplished in their lives. God has a track record of answering us in unexpected ways with His great power!
Behold, I am the Lord the God of all mankind. Is there anything too hard for me?
Jeremiah 32:27
