A quick note about Healing Prayer. The first thing to remember is that healing prayer is not magic. God is not some impersonal force, or lesser being that we can manipulate into doing our will by the use of certain words, symbols, objects or force of will. There is no magic wand in Christianity. Neither is God some human like agent that we can nag into giving us what we want. Emotional blackmail will not work on the creator of emotions.

Healing prayer is both simpler than that and more troublesome. Simpler because healing prayer is not magic it is relationship. More troublesome because when we approach our Father God, His perspective is so much greater than ours.

Healing prayer as relationship. When we were young and got hurt our first reaction was to turn to mom or dad to make the hurt go away. Quickly we learned that mom and dad could not just wave their hands and make it all better. Still we trusted them to take our hurts seriously and do their best to assuage it; wash out the cut, put a band aid on it, a kiss and we were on our way once more. We turned to our parents not because they were magic but because they loved us and had more “power”, to cure our ills.

God presents Himself to us as King, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Messiah, but also as friend, brother, and Father. God is Family. For the purpose of prayer He is loving parent. One we, as His children, trust to take our hurts seriously and work in our lives for our good.

Matthew 7: 7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

That is all healing prayer is. It is us, the children of God turning towards our heavenly Father and trusting Him with our hurts and pains.

The troubling part is that God does not always answer us the way we want. We are fallen human beings, living in a fallen world. We want. Especially when we are hurting, we want and we want healing now. We know from hard experience that God does not always do that. This is not to say that God does not love the person praying. It is not that the person is somehow unworthy of healing. (No one is worthy of God’s love or grace. That’s why they call it grace.) What is going on is that God is Dad. He really is bigger than us, knowing more than us and capable of more than us.

For example: A young boy comes home from a little league game. His wrist hurts. He naturally turns to dad to put a bandage on it. He expects some Advil. Perhaps an ice pack. Dad will take care of it and the boy will return to play the next day. But Dad looks at the writs and sees something more. He takes his son to the Hospital, an X-ray is taken and the broken arm is set in a cast. The poor young boy loses out on the rest of the season. However his arm heals properly and the next baseball season is better than ever. The young boy did not get the answer he wanted. He got the answer he needed.

The hard part is that our perspective is too limited. Our understanding too small and our hurts sometimes so great. It is hard to imagine the greater good of pain. It is really hard to imagine that the greater good for our loved ones is not to heal in this world but to go on to be with the Lord.

Romans 8: God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Not magic. Not manipulation. Healing prayer is more complex, more troubling, more glorious than that. Healing prayer is God’s familial love for us in real action. God loves His children and will take care of them. We may not understand the process. We may not enjoy the ride. But we are loved. We are invited into the family. We are to trust God, stand back and watch His wonders.