Post details: sickness, prayers, and faith

10/30/07

sickness, prayers, and faith

by Trent (originally posted on June 29, 2006
I have prayed for healing from an ailment from which I suffered. Have you?

It wasn't a life threatening ailment; just something irksome that I would rather do without. So, I asked for physical healing in prayer one day. It went something like this: "Please heal me from this." Nothing special, God knows what you mean, when you pray ... flowery words are just goofy. I usually just shoot from the hip, and trust that God knows the heart regardless of the words used.

So, the next day ... the ailment flared-up. Again and again, for months and months. At first I used the flare-ups to remind me to pray again for deliverance. Then I realized, God heard me the first time. He didn't need the reminder. On the first request, God understood. Every time I said "please" again and again, was another time that I was demonstrating my unbelief that God really had this in His hands.

jugglingI often treat prayers like juggling. I throw things up to God, and when it comes back down, I catch it and throw it back up. But, faith requires trust and understanding. Faith and doubt do not mix. What I should be doing is tossing it up, and if it comes back down just let it. I don't need to pick it up again and toss it back up to God. I gave it to Him, and He can come take it when He wants to.

Isn't it true that you could sign over your house and cars to me today, and that I could come take them from you at any time? Well, if I wait 1 year or 1 day, those things still belong to me. Provided that I wait and 4 months go by ... don't comfort yourself. I'll come and get them when I want. They belong to me, and I can decide when to take them from you. Signing them over to me again and again only would demonstrate that you distrusted the first process of signing them over to me.

In Bible college, a saint named Bob Hopkins came as a guest speaker. Bob has since gone to be with the Lord, but he had a wonderfully simple message about faith. I can sum it up in one phrase: "'Thank you' is the language of faith." The implied corollary was "'Please' is the language of mistrust."

I can't say "please" without expressing an unbelief or doubt that something has occurred.
I can't say "thank you" without trusting and understanding that something has occurred.

I was stuck in a rut of unbelief, that was demonstrated by my daily request for healing. I did not believe that God took it the first time. I was saying "please" for something for which I should be saying "thank you." So, I repented of my unbelief one day.

Now, I had a new approach. Whenever a flare-up occurred, I quit asking for deliverance. Instead, I simply exercised faith, and used the occasion of the sickness to say "thank you." My prayers went something like this: "Thank you, that you have heard my prayers and You have this ailment in Your hands. Its not mine any longer, even though You haven't taken it away yet. I'm grateful that You will take this sickness when you are ready to take it."

He was ready to take the ailment soon afterward. In fact, it was only a couple of weeks longer, and the sickness was gone. I was delivered by God, through a friend that suggested a remedy.

faithMaybe you are asking for something over and over, too. May I suggest, that if God did not hear the first request, then we are all in a lot of trouble. I am witnessing to the fact that God does hear us the first time you ask.

There are many things that I used to ask over and over for ... forgiveness is one of the main ones. I no longer ask even for forgiveness. God heard me the first time, and I will exercise my faith by saying "thank you" for the things for which I used to say "please."

Comments:

Comment from: yes2truth [Visitor] · http://yes2truth.com.istemp.com/index.html
Hi,

I'm glad you don't ask for forgiveness of your sins anymore for He doesn't expect us to.

Repetitive confession of sins is not Biblical. Our Lord took all our sins with Him to the cross - all of them.

What He taught me was this, if we go to Him with today's sins and ask Him to forgive us, we are actually saying to Him: "Here you are Lord, here are some sins of mine which you forgot to take with you to the cross."

Now, how awful does that sound? Everytime we do that we make a mockery of His Sacrifice and we are actually telling Him He didn't do the job properly - a henious blasphemy.

I thought I would just share that Truth with you.

Regards

y2t
Permalink 06/29/06 @ 18:44
Comment from: Trent [Member] · http://www.GraceHead.com
Thank you for sharing it. It is a re-occurring theme at GraceHead.com.
We do not treat the blood of the New Covenant as some unholy thing ... we thank God for forgiveness! We do not ask for something of which His blood is sufficient ... lest we do so in unbelief in its sufficiency.

Ripening for the harvest,
Trent
Permalink 06/29/06 @ 21:13
Comment from: Ambree C. [Visitor]
Thanks for such encouraging words...Right now I'm struggling with some life issues that I've prayed about them from time to time. I guess I should be focusing more on the Lord instead of my circumstances--but it's hard when you're dealing with physical ailments--pain, tiredness, sleep deprivation, etc. I feel so worn down by life and work that it's about to drive me insane...but remembering Christ's love and knowing He's here with me keeps me from going over the edge. The Word says that we should give thanks in all circumstances--but in all honesty, my spirit is willing but my flesh is exhausted, tired, irritated, fatigue and TOO STRESSED to focus...and plus I have to watch the kids on top of all that! lol...

Please...oops...I mean, *thanks in advance* for your prayers during my life's ordeal...I'm thanking the Lord now for the deliverance He's gonna send my way...and just in time, the baby just started to cry! lol...

Ambree C. :)
Permalink 06/30/06 @ 15:48

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