Pray for Rain

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.  Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.  Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
James 5:13-18

This is a verse I'm wrestling with right now.  I have a friend who is lying in a hospital bed.  He has cancer that, without a miraculous healing, will almost certainly take his life soon.  He will leave behind a wife and a long hoped for five-month-old son.

This passage of scripture clearly directs me to pray for him to be healed.  If you have never had people pray for your healing, it is a strange sensation.  If you have a long-term condition, as I do; you may even feel uncomfortable with people praying for you.  Perhaps you have even felt guilty when your healing did not materialize; as if you were disappointing someone.

Miraculous physical healing is an incredible gift from God, but keep in mind that salvation is a much greater gift.  If you have ever prayed for someone's healing to no avail, I pray that you have not been disappointed in yourself.  I sincerely hope you had never encountered someone who said that healing did not occur because of your lack of faith or that the illness is the result of someone's sin.  Though God certainly is capable of using a physical ailment as a form of discipline, this is not the cause of all disease.

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
John 9:1-3

In this passage, the "works of God" refers to the blind man's physical healing.  To think that physical healing is the only way that the "works of God" can be displayed in the life of a person with an illness or disability is to limit God.  To believe that we can take the God of the universe and fit Him into our limited understanding is foolishness.

Please be in prayer for my friend, but also keep in mind that God operates in a manner we cannot comprehend.  The matter what occurs, we can be confident that God will keep His children in His hands.