Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing this heavy burden and for your love for your missionary brother and dear friend. We are joining you in prayer for him right now, asking the Lord to show mercy, to bring comfort and strength to him and to those who love him, and to make His power and presence known in this difficult battle with cancer.
Prayer rests on relationship. Through faith in Jesus Christ we are brought into the family of God, and we can come to Him as Father. His ear is open to the cry of His children. That relationship is the foundation for effective prayer, so we encourage you and your friend to rest in that nearness to Christ, trusting Him not only for what He can do but for who He is.
The heart of prayer is not to bend God to our wishes but to invite His will and His kingdom to be done on earth. We often come to God desperately wanting a specific answer, and He understands that desire. Yet there is a danger in seeking only healing and forgetting the Healer, or seeking only deliverance and forgetting the Deliverer. We want to seek the Lord Himself first, worshiping Him for His greatness and goodness, and then bring our petitions to Him with trust, asking that His perfect will be accomplished.
Scripture gives clear direction when someone is sick. It says if there is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. It also says to confess your faults to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed, for the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much. We encourage your friend, if he is able, to call for godly elders to pray for him in this biblical way. There is no special power in any person, and no one should be lifted up. When healing comes it is a gift from God and He alone receives the glory.
God does heal. We have seen Him touch and restore in the ministry of Jesus and in the early church, and He still heals today. Sometimes that healing is immediate, sometimes it is a process over time, and God even uses medical means to bring help and there is nothing wrong with using medicine. At other times, in His wisdom, He calls His children home. Whatever He does, we trust His love and His purpose, and we continue to pray with faith while leaving the outcome in His hands.
Prayer is not vain repetition or many words to earn an answer. It is not a bargain where we try to make deals with God. God longs to do good for His children, but He does not force Himself against our will. Prayer simply opens the door for Him to do what He has desired to do all along. So we pray sincerely, not to impress God with length, but with honest faith, bringing worship, bringing our own needs, and bringing intercession for others.
So we are praying with you for your friend, that the cancer would be removed from his body, that God would bring wholeness and renewed strength if it is His will, and that his life would be a testimony to the mercy and power of Jesus. We are also praying that whether through a miraculous touch or through the help of treatment, he would know the peace and presence of Christ, and that God would sustain his family and friends with hope. May the Lord draw near to him in this trial and be his strength and rest.
Prayer rests on relationship. Through faith in Jesus Christ we are brought into the family of God, and we can come to Him as Father. His ear is open to the cry of His children. That relationship is the foundation for effective prayer, so we encourage you and your friend to rest in that nearness to Christ, trusting Him not only for what He can do but for who He is.
The heart of prayer is not to bend God to our wishes but to invite His will and His kingdom to be done on earth. We often come to God desperately wanting a specific answer, and He understands that desire. Yet there is a danger in seeking only healing and forgetting the Healer, or seeking only deliverance and forgetting the Deliverer. We want to seek the Lord Himself first, worshiping Him for His greatness and goodness, and then bring our petitions to Him with trust, asking that His perfect will be accomplished.
Scripture gives clear direction when someone is sick. It says if there is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. It also says to confess your faults to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed, for the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much. We encourage your friend, if he is able, to call for godly elders to pray for him in this biblical way. There is no special power in any person, and no one should be lifted up. When healing comes it is a gift from God and He alone receives the glory.
God does heal. We have seen Him touch and restore in the ministry of Jesus and in the early church, and He still heals today. Sometimes that healing is immediate, sometimes it is a process over time, and God even uses medical means to bring help and there is nothing wrong with using medicine. At other times, in His wisdom, He calls His children home. Whatever He does, we trust His love and His purpose, and we continue to pray with faith while leaving the outcome in His hands.
Prayer is not vain repetition or many words to earn an answer. It is not a bargain where we try to make deals with God. God longs to do good for His children, but He does not force Himself against our will. Prayer simply opens the door for Him to do what He has desired to do all along. So we pray sincerely, not to impress God with length, but with honest faith, bringing worship, bringing our own needs, and bringing intercession for others.
So we are praying with you for your friend, that the cancer would be removed from his body, that God would bring wholeness and renewed strength if it is His will, and that his life would be a testimony to the mercy and power of Jesus. We are also praying that whether through a miraculous touch or through the help of treatment, he would know the peace and presence of Christ, and that God would sustain his family and friends with hope. May the Lord draw near to him in this trial and be his strength and rest.
