Hey, don’t you remember:

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/content/files/CWS/jpmorelandkingdomtriangle.mp3

I’ve listened to almost every converse with scholars and you guys are such a blessing. I will be praying for your mom.

James 5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises. 5:14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint 15 him with oil in the name of the Lord. 5:15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up – and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. 17 5:17 Elijah was a human being 18 like us, and he prayed earnestly 19 that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! 5:18 Then 20 he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.

Truthfully, in the last few days I have felt better than I have felt in a long time . . . This comes in times of real difficulties. Thanks so much for your prayers . . . they are felt.

I will likely be in your situation someday. That is the human lot in life. It isn’t fair. It isn’t just. It just is. We go on. We raise our kids. We coach our soccer teams. We sing at church. We treat others with kindness and dignity. We count our blessings while we remember those who seem to enjoy far fewer.

I don’t have any answers, man. I only imagine your pain. But you are in my thoughts.

I’m also always a skeptic, but for the first time I saw such a healing a month ago. A good friend of mine’s daughter was in a horseback riding accident earlier this year. She fell off and was flown to Fort Worth, paralyzed in both her legs. She regained some slight movement in her right but her left leg was completely unresponsive. She spent the next several months in a wheelchair, reoutfitted her car so she could drive and traveled back and forth to San Antonio for therapy with little progress and hope. Approximately 6 months later, she went on a trip to Washington DC with Prayer America last month on the way back their bus broke down in the middle of no where. While they were waiting for it to be fixed. She was prayed over for healing. Immediately she stood up and walked afterwards and was even able to run and jump. She called her mom crying saying Jesus had healed her. I couldn’t help but laugh and cry when her mom called me and told me. I hate being a skeptic. I hate that I am still a skeptic. I know God can heal and does heal, but will he is another question. Healing doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen. Regardless of his response, it’s our duty to ask God for healing. Psa. 50:15: “Call/Pray to me when you are in trouble! I will deliver you, and you will honor me!” When we are in trouble, we are to call to God otherwise, we disgrace him instead of glorifying him. We disgrace him by portraying him as a God who does not care, who does not hear, who cannot and will not help. We must honor him by praying for healing. We must trust him when he responds even if his response is not healing. We must trust his wisdom and goodness when it makes no sense to us. It is a hard and most difficult test of our faith.

“When I was sick you took care of me…just as you did it for one of the least of these sisters of mine, you did it for me.”

You are serving Jesus, as you care for your mother. He sees it as such.

My prayer will be for God to strengthen and encourage you, and your sisters, as you fulfill this role.

I attend a Brethren church. There are no healing services, but the elders are called upon to anoint the sick at times privately. I’ve never asked if they have witnessed healing.

Jason D., That is so hard! A friend of mine was born with such a serious heart condition that she was told never to get pregnant or it would kill her. She has lived to age 40, which is very unusual for her condition. She’s been married for many years… just became pregnant. All of her doctors told her to have an abortion or she would die (including a Christian). The abortion was scheduled, but she left crying. She couldn’t go through with it. She was at two months, the baby was measuring small, and she began to have numbness in her hands and feet. She was in bed, on oxogen. She received much counsel, both spiritual and medical. She needed to have peace, that she was not disobeying God. She had the abortion, with seven doctors attending the in-hospital procedure. Two days earlier her father, who had been recently diagnosed with cancer, died. She was grieving two deaths, but she found peace in God, through His word. This happened three weeks ago. I will pray that you will have God’s peace.

May the joyful and happy times you have occupy your memories.

So why. you might ask, do I write. I wanted desperately to be relieved of this thorn in the flesh. I’ve witnessed divine healing many times, my pastor has prayed over me, and I know it’s certainly no issue for the God of the universe to do so. And it may happen yet. However I have also prayed that I would rather remain in my condition than lose the most joyful sense of His presence and how He has enabled me to walk (or limp) in victory knowing He will never leave me nor forsake me.

I don’t know why my sister suffers from an inflammatory bowel disorder. But we pray, and we trust God and in the end that is all we can do.