Why isn’t every sick person we pray for healed? We don’t know, and God doesn’t always tell us. Paul writes, ‘I left Trophimus sick in Miletus’ (2 Timothy 4:20 NIV). Why would Paul, who had raised the dead, leave a friend sick instead of praying and seeing him healed? Perhaps he did pray, but God chose not to heal Trophimus, at least at that time. There are aspects of healing we’ll never fully understand, and there are many things about God we don’t know, but here’s one thing we do know about Him: ‘I am the Lord, who heals you.’ And since He said, ‘I am the Lord, and I do not change’ (Malachi 3:6 NLT), and ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8 NIV), we can go to Him for healing based on His Word. One of the last statements Jesus made before leaving earth was: ‘These signs will follow those who believe…They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover’ (Mark 16:17-18 NKJV). Do we believe God still heals people today? Or have we become disappointed and disillusioned because we haven’t seen God move in miraculous ways when we’ve prayed? If we’re struggling to believe, we need to ask God to increase our faith and then we need to start praying expectantly again. Let’s obey this verse: ‘Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord’ (James 5:14 NIV). We may be finding it hard to keep praying when we’re not seeing anything happen. We can wonder if God really is as good as He says He is. But let’s not give up. Healing doesn’t always happen in the way we expect. So let’s persistently, expectantly pray for those we know who are ill.

What Now?

Spend some time praying for someone you know who is unwell. If you can, visit them and pray for them face to face.