Ask · Prayer

Does God still heal when we pray?

The short answer

Yes, God still heals, and Christians should ask him to heal, bring the sick to the elders of the church, and pray with real expectation. But God does not heal every time in this life, as Paul's own unanswered prayer shows, and a person who is not healed has not failed in faith. The final, complete healing for every believer is the resurrection.

The fuller answer

Yes, God still heals, and the first thing to say to a sick person is not a theory but an invitation to pray. James tells the sick to call the elders of the church, to be prayed over and anointed with oil, and he promises that the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. Whatever else Christians debate about healing, that instruction stands in the text, and churches should obey it gladly rather than explain it away or treat it as a last resort.

The same Bible is honest that God does not always heal in this life, and it puts that honesty in the life of an apostle. Paul prayed three times for the removal of what he calls a thorn in the flesh, and the answer he received was not removal but grace sufficient for him, with God's power made perfect in weakness. If unanswered healing prayer proved weak faith, Paul himself would stand condemned by that test. He was not. He was carried, and he learned to boast in the carrying.

Jesus also refused to read sickness as a simple punishment for a person's sin. Asked about a man born blind, he said neither the man nor his parents had sinned in the way his questioners assumed. That matters pastorally. A sick believer does not need a courtroom, and friends at a bedside should not go hunting for the hidden sin or the missing ounce of faith that supposedly blocked the cure. Sometimes God heals at once, sometimes through medicine and time, sometimes not until the resurrection.

So pray for healing boldly, and keep praying, and use every good means God provides, including doctors, without treating medicine and prayer as rivals. If healing comes, receive it with thanks and say so. If it does not come, you are not abandoned and you have not been weighed and found wanting. The God who sometimes says no, as he did to Paul, is the same God who promises that one day there will be no more sickness, pain or death for his people. Bring a friend, bring the elders, and bring the request again tomorrow as well.

Sources

• Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

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