8/28/2023

Do you have questions about prayer?  A person who had experienced the death of a family member said within a text to me:  “I do not understand the concept of prayer.  In fact, I kinda do not see the point.”

I hope how I responded was helpful to that person and is helpful to you.  Here’s what I texted back:

“I am so very sorry for your loss.  I acknowledge that there are things I don’t understand about matters of faith, but I want to try and answer your question.

When it comes to prayer, I think an important place to begin is to consider what is prayer’s purpose.  I understand prayer to be communication with God. 

From the human side of the communication, prayer is a way for me to express my gratitude to God for the gift of life and love.  It is a way for me to seek insight, guidance and direction for my life so that I might align my will with God’s purposes in order for my life to be transformed to become more like Jesus.   It is a way for me to celebrate the joys I experience in life as well as a way to share my sadness and sorrows.

Prayer is a way for me to admit my selfishness and ask God for forgiveness so I might be set free from guilt and shame.  It is a way for me to communicate my confusion and doubt to God.  It is a way for me to express my hurt and heartache to God.  It is a way for me to offer up my frustrations to God and to release my anger to God and even toward God.

If I understand you correctly, your question about prayer is not so much about any of these aspects of prayer, but more about prayer as petition, especially when it comes to the possibility of miraculous healing.

For me, the matter of why miraculous healing occurs at some times and not at other times is a mystery.  The Bible speaks of times when healing occurs, it also speaks of times when healing does not occur.

The Apostle Paul prayed for healing for himself, but he did not experience healing.  He writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that God responded to his prayer:  “My grace is enough to cover and sustain you.  My power is made perfect in weakness.”

My understanding from the Bible and from experience is that there are times in which God responds with healing grace, and at other times God responds with sustaining grace.

Why God responds at some times with healing grace and at other times with sustaining grace, I do not know.  Again, there is mystery to life and to faith. 

I am sure of this.  Ultimately, sustaining grace is more important than healing grace, for there will be a time when healing does not ultimately occur.  At some time we all will know people who die.  At some time we all ourselves will die.  It is God’s sustaining grace that enables us to keep living lives of love and caring as long as we have breath in an imperfect, broken world and enables us not give in to despair and hopelessness.

My wife, Debbie, lost three children to miscarriages.  We grieved.  We questioned.  We chose to continue to embrace faith in God, we chose to place our continuing hope in God, even though we did not understand.  For us, where else would we place our faith?  In whom else would we place our hope?

We have relied on God’s sustaining grace to strengthen and comfort us in the deaths of our parents and other loved ones.  We do not believe there are simplistic answers for the brokenness in the world.  We do believe that God’s love is what upholds us and brings meaning and purpose to our lives, and we pray for that.

-Michael