Boxing With Shadows: Prayer, Part 2

In my last post Boxing With Shadows: Prayer, Part 1, I shared why praying for healing has always been challenging for me. Yet during the three-year period of fighting Stovie’s symptoms of Autism, we had to lean on God more than ever. I had to get comfortable with praying for healing and praying with faith. Here are some of the lessons I learned along the way:

1. Begin with a heart that is fully prepared to embrace the will of God and to trust in Him. Regardless of the outcome, I believe that God is a good God, and that ultimately, His plans for me are good. I acknowledge that sometimes they might not look so great from a temporal perspective, but that in no way diminishes His goodness. I trust in HIM, not a desired outcome.

2. I start with what I know: (Is. 53:5) “Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” It was not my idea to include healing in the list of things that Jesus purchased by His sacrifice for us. It was God’s idea. Jesus made healing a significant part of His ministry. God is pro-healing. The fact that sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t is something I will never understand this side of eternity. But I know that God is a healing God.

3. I should not lower my faith to the level of my experiences, but raise my experiences to the level of my faith (from Pastor Brian Houston). The fact that my dad died when I was nine actually kept me from activating my faith for healing for years. Only when my son’s health was on the line, did I find the will to throw caution to the wind and really believe as much as I could for his healing. I used to tell myself that I was being “reasonable” by not praying for healing. But I was really just afraid of setting myself up for disappointment. Praying and believing in faith takes courage.

4. Prayer is a spiritual labor. When you are training for a race, you have to push yourself in both speed and distance to better your finish time. There are times when you will hit a wall and feel like you need to stop, but if you keep pressing through that wall, you will get a “second wind.” And you will be able to go farther than you once thought you could. Building your faith is like that. You increase your “faith stamina” as you wait on God. While you wait on Him, you will certainly hit a wall. You will feel drained and hopeless, wondering if you ever heard from God in the first place. When you get to this place remember that you are hitting a faith wall. This is not the time to sit down on the side of the road and give up. Push through! Keep running, and soon enough you will get a second wind, for “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall walk and not grow weary, they shall run and not faint.” (Is. 40:31)