Sunday, March 24, 2013
physical and spiritual healing
"When we are struggling with serious illness, there are Bible passages that seem to promise more than we may feel that we have the right (or the faith) to ask. James exhorts us to pray for sick persons with this promise: “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up” (James 5: 15). How can we offer such a prayer in faith when we know of faithful Christians with seriously ill loved ones? Begin by believing that God always answers this prayer too.
Lest you think that I have put God in a box and am proposing to put all doctors out of business, consider the careful wording of the Bible: “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he 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 man is powerful and effective” (James 5: 15– 16). In the original language James says literally that the Lord will “save” (sōzō) the sick person and will “raise him up.” The Bible uses these words elsewhere to refer to spiritual salvation and resurrection, not simply to physical healing (see Luke 19: 10; 1 Cor. 1: 21; 6: 14; 2 Cor. 4: 14; Heb. 7: 25).
James makes the spiritual connection even clearer by including the command to confess sins as part of the process of praying for healing. God’s ultimate purpose is to secure the eternal health of the one who is sick. Whether the illness is a consequence of unconfessed sin or unhealed disease, the ultimate aim of the healing prayer is the spiritual security of the sick person whom God will “save” and “raise up.” Note that James promises not merely the healing of the disease through faithful prayer but also the healing of sin: “If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.” James is preeminently concerned about saving (in the spiritual sense) the sick person.
....With faith in God’s sovereignty over eternity undergirding our prayers, I have often encouraged others not to pray for God to heal if it is his will— as though maybe he will heal and maybe not. Instead, I encourage my friends and family to pray for God to heal according to his will. Then, whether he answers with the temporary healing that keeps a loved one with us longer, or whether he answers with the perfect healing of taking that one into Jesus’ arms, we remain confident that he has blessed."
- Bryan Chapell, Praying Backwards: Transform your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus' Name (emphasis mine)
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
chévere!
My trip to Ecuador was by all means "chévere"! Learning opportunities abounded, people were genuine and gracious, so many lives came to the Lord, and eternal relationships were built. There is one story that had an impact on me; it's nothing big, but it sums up well the things that I took away most from the trip.
Our first day in Bahia, several of us went to an AIDS hospital thinking that we were going to share the gospel with AIDS patients (sweet!). When we got there, our team's physician taught a mini-lesson on how HIV is transmitted and ways to prevent it using a handy HIV/AIDS cube. Afterwards, we shuffled out and waited for floor assignments of patients we can go see, but we found out that none of the patients actually stay at the hospital; they only come to receive ARVs. So we were kind of bummed, but the director told us that they do have other patients that we could go visit, so we decided to go and do that. Little did we know that the floor some of us were going to was the pediatrics department, more specifically we ended up where all the babies were. Babies?! Really God? Well, since God had pretty much directed everything up to this point (i.e. nothing going according to our plans) we went along with it. I came up to a tiny tiny baby, who had to be less than 15 lbs and was already 11 months old, and it was most helpless baby I've ever seen. We learned from the dad who was standing next to the crib that he had nonstop diarrhea since he was born and the doctors have not been able to figure out what was wrong with him. On top of that, he was blind. I couldn't bear to look at his poor little face because it just broke my heart to pieces. As we talked more with the dad, I could sense the utter despair he had for this little son of his. It wasn't his first child, but that didn't matter--to lose the life of any child is unbearably painful. I tried encouraging him and saying that God has a wonderful plan for this child, that no matter what happens something good will come of it, but I knew my words were empty promises, even if they were stemmed from the Word. To this father and his family, this kind of suffering was inexplicable. I asked him if he was Christian, and he said he was, and I proceeded further to offer some encouragement or semblance of hope, yet still my words held no assurance for him. I finally stopped talking and just stood there gazing at the little baby. The Holy Spirit nudged me to pray for him, so I asked if I could, and the father agreed. I don't remember what exactly I said, but as I prayed and tears came down my face, I could sense the father starting to have just an ounce of hope that his son was in God's hands. When we all opened our eyes, each of us had to wipe away the remaining tears and I saw just the slightest smile on the father's face. He told me afterwards that he would come find us when we would be working in his neighborhood. I didn't think much of it and carried on to the next person.
On Wednesday, our team headed to the village of Fanca. It turned out to be our busiest day of the entire trip. When we got there, masses of people were already waiting to greet us and hoping that we could see them and diagnose whatever ailments they had. As the day went on, I wondered if I would see the father again, but I decided to not put my hope in it. After lunch as I was seeing patients, I felt the urge to just turn around in my chair and look outside the window. Right when I turned around, the father was standing a foot away from the window waving and smiling at me. I could not believe it! He had come back and brought his wife and little boy to see the doctor! In my mind, knowing how poor my diagnostic skills were, I prayed that he would not be my patient but would be seen by the actual physician. By God's grace, my prayers were answered. During the entire examination, I would peek over occasionally to see what Dr. Kathy was doing and making sure that nothing serious was going on. After the mom had left with the baby, I went over to her and asked what she diagnosed him with. She said that he had persistent diarrhea and that the infection that caused it might have also caused the ear infection that he now had, so she treated him for the ear infection. Who knew that it was that simple? The Ecuadorian doctors had no idea what was causing this all this time, and no one bothered to do a full physical exam and check his ears. Crazy. I was so relieved that Dr. Kathy could help the family and that God had so divinely intervened in the most perfect way. After we finished for the day, I was walking back toward the bus and witness the tail-end of the first church meeting with all the new believers we had shared the gospel with that day. Immediately in the crowd I could pick out the father among them, smiling from ear to ear, waving back at me again. Whether he just accepted Christ that day or was just helping out with the pastors, I have no idea. It didn't matter to me. To see the joy on his face and know that he trusted in God's goodness and provision for his life was enough for me. What a blessing it is when we submit to God's plans and lean not on our own understanding!
Before we left the baby's hospital bed that day, the father said that he was looking for a North American godparent for his son, someone who could pray for him and support him. I knew we couldn't make promises for financial support, but I offered to pray for him. There could have been something lost in translation, but I'm pretty sure he agreed to that. Nevertheless, that family will always be in my heart and my prayers. Their struggle was a perfect example of how fallible medicine can be, how imperfect our efforts will always be, and how supreme and wonderful God's power is.
God will work when we empty ourselves of everything and let him work.
Our first day in Bahia, several of us went to an AIDS hospital thinking that we were going to share the gospel with AIDS patients (sweet!). When we got there, our team's physician taught a mini-lesson on how HIV is transmitted and ways to prevent it using a handy HIV/AIDS cube. Afterwards, we shuffled out and waited for floor assignments of patients we can go see, but we found out that none of the patients actually stay at the hospital; they only come to receive ARVs. So we were kind of bummed, but the director told us that they do have other patients that we could go visit, so we decided to go and do that. Little did we know that the floor some of us were going to was the pediatrics department, more specifically we ended up where all the babies were. Babies?! Really God? Well, since God had pretty much directed everything up to this point (i.e. nothing going according to our plans) we went along with it. I came up to a tiny tiny baby, who had to be less than 15 lbs and was already 11 months old, and it was most helpless baby I've ever seen. We learned from the dad who was standing next to the crib that he had nonstop diarrhea since he was born and the doctors have not been able to figure out what was wrong with him. On top of that, he was blind. I couldn't bear to look at his poor little face because it just broke my heart to pieces. As we talked more with the dad, I could sense the utter despair he had for this little son of his. It wasn't his first child, but that didn't matter--to lose the life of any child is unbearably painful. I tried encouraging him and saying that God has a wonderful plan for this child, that no matter what happens something good will come of it, but I knew my words were empty promises, even if they were stemmed from the Word. To this father and his family, this kind of suffering was inexplicable. I asked him if he was Christian, and he said he was, and I proceeded further to offer some encouragement or semblance of hope, yet still my words held no assurance for him. I finally stopped talking and just stood there gazing at the little baby. The Holy Spirit nudged me to pray for him, so I asked if I could, and the father agreed. I don't remember what exactly I said, but as I prayed and tears came down my face, I could sense the father starting to have just an ounce of hope that his son was in God's hands. When we all opened our eyes, each of us had to wipe away the remaining tears and I saw just the slightest smile on the father's face. He told me afterwards that he would come find us when we would be working in his neighborhood. I didn't think much of it and carried on to the next person.
On Wednesday, our team headed to the village of Fanca. It turned out to be our busiest day of the entire trip. When we got there, masses of people were already waiting to greet us and hoping that we could see them and diagnose whatever ailments they had. As the day went on, I wondered if I would see the father again, but I decided to not put my hope in it. After lunch as I was seeing patients, I felt the urge to just turn around in my chair and look outside the window. Right when I turned around, the father was standing a foot away from the window waving and smiling at me. I could not believe it! He had come back and brought his wife and little boy to see the doctor! In my mind, knowing how poor my diagnostic skills were, I prayed that he would not be my patient but would be seen by the actual physician. By God's grace, my prayers were answered. During the entire examination, I would peek over occasionally to see what Dr. Kathy was doing and making sure that nothing serious was going on. After the mom had left with the baby, I went over to her and asked what she diagnosed him with. She said that he had persistent diarrhea and that the infection that caused it might have also caused the ear infection that he now had, so she treated him for the ear infection. Who knew that it was that simple? The Ecuadorian doctors had no idea what was causing this all this time, and no one bothered to do a full physical exam and check his ears. Crazy. I was so relieved that Dr. Kathy could help the family and that God had so divinely intervened in the most perfect way. After we finished for the day, I was walking back toward the bus and witness the tail-end of the first church meeting with all the new believers we had shared the gospel with that day. Immediately in the crowd I could pick out the father among them, smiling from ear to ear, waving back at me again. Whether he just accepted Christ that day or was just helping out with the pastors, I have no idea. It didn't matter to me. To see the joy on his face and know that he trusted in God's goodness and provision for his life was enough for me. What a blessing it is when we submit to God's plans and lean not on our own understanding!
Before we left the baby's hospital bed that day, the father said that he was looking for a North American godparent for his son, someone who could pray for him and support him. I knew we couldn't make promises for financial support, but I offered to pray for him. There could have been something lost in translation, but I'm pretty sure he agreed to that. Nevertheless, that family will always be in my heart and my prayers. Their struggle was a perfect example of how fallible medicine can be, how imperfect our efforts will always be, and how supreme and wonderful God's power is.
God will work when we empty ourselves of everything and let him work.
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