etxtdi@diana4.ericsson.se (Tord Ivarsson TM/JLE 95406) (11/27/90)
This is in response to a couple of articles about healing and 'the thorn in the flesh' by (Sys admin) and (Tim Hoogasian). Mr. Allen Cheung writes: >> Is it God's will to heal us? YES! Why? Because of the explanation >>given in Hebrews 8:6 that we are under a BETTER covenant. The NEW (Sys admin) writes: >The problem I have with this (along with other evangelicals like Everett >Koop) is that while God does heal, there is always a tendency on the part >of those believing the above to treat those who fail to be healed >as second-class Christians. It's yet another form of blaming the poor >victim. The question is whether or not God has the will to heal his children from desease of different kinds. Myself and Allen Cheung have asserted that God has explicitly stated in His Word that this is the case. James (1:6) says that unless you know that God wants to give what you pray about, it is useless to pray about it. "You have to know that God is there, and that he rewards those who seek him". Other scriptures clearly tells us that if we pray _after Gods will_ we know that he hears us and answers our prayers. All this shows us the utter importance of what we belive of the subject we pray for. Do we know that our prayer is in accordance to God will, or do we just take a chance ? (Dear God, make an exception for me, just me, please). This is what makes the difference between an answered prayer and the frustration of mere failed hope. I do firmly believe in Gods will for complete healing always, and this faith is firmly founded on several clear scriptures throughout the Old and New Testament. One of the Names of the Lord in the O.T. is 'The Lord our Healer'. When someone mentions the thorn in Pauls flesh, it is a weak "proof" of a sickness that God should have laid upon Paul. In fact it is only an assumption. The Word is much stronger "By His stripes we are healed". My faith finds rest upon this Word. When (sys adm) says that "there is always a tendancy to blame those who don't get healed .. as second class Christians". I find this an unfounded statement which I doubt has any correspondence in reality at all. I have just been at home some days of work because I caught a cold. I feel my fathers love as much anyway, even if my faith was not so edified as to throw off this cold immediately. I don't condemn myself, noone else does condemn me, nor my Father does. I will just feed my faith with the Word a little bit more until the next time. I am sorry, but I can't understand this talk about blaming the victim. I _can_ tell about times when I _did_ cast off an attack of a cold, and the last years when I have known of this about Gods will with my health, the frequence of colds has been lower then previousely. The key to all this is to believe what the Word says itself, rather then to make up a theology that "explains" why things look to be different from what the Word says. This is not to make another doctrine, it is just to believe what the scripture asserts itself. "Just" is not just maybe, because it takes some work to read, meditate and get the Word down to heart, in order to get it to function for me. Summary: The key to getting a prayer answered is to know what the will of God is. It is only when I pray in accordance to Gods will that I can count on an answer. If I pray for healing, I have to know that God wants to give me healing. I assert from the Word of God that he wants. God bless, Tord Ivarsson ETX, Stockholm. Personal mail is welcome.
johnb@gatech.edu (John Baldwin) (11/29/90)
In article <Nov.27.03.45.22.1990.22948@athos.rutgers.edu> etxtdi@diana4.ericsson.se (Tord Ivarsson TM/JLE 95406) writes: >Summary: The key to getting a prayer answered is to know what >the will of God is. It is only when I pray in accordance to >Gods will that I can count on an answer. Shouldn't that be rephrased as "only when I pray in accordance with God's will can I expect an affirmative answer?" ^^^^^^^^^^^ Otherwise, we "prevent" our Father from giving us two VERY GOOD responses to prayer, namely "NO" and "wait." As has been discussed before, "if God already knows everything, then why pray?" A good response to that, which has also been discussed before, is that 1) God commanded us to pray (which by itself should be enough), 2) it pleases our Father when His adopted children bring their requests to Him, and rely on Him, and 3) prayer has the uncanny effect of tending to bring our thoughts and desires in line with the Lord's will. There have been so many times that I've been praying, and found myself stopping suddenly with the thought, "I shouldn't be praying for THAT. I know what the scripture says, and I should be praying THIS way." When that happens, I ask forgiveness for asking for the wrong things, I express thankfulness for my Lord's gentle correction, and then I make my petitions and intercessions more in accordance with His will. I shudder to think how many opportunities for (gentle) correction I could have missed by failing to pray until I "knew" what God's will was! Come to think of it, I shudder to think about the opportunities I *have* missed by not praying! In His Love, john