What Healing Prayer Might Actually Look Like

To be healed means to be alleviated or healthy again from a wound or injury.

Most people can think of examples of healing “Jesus heals a man with leprosy” “this person was miraculously cured of cancer”. We think of it as “either / or”. Either you are healed or you are not healed.

And that is true in many cases. Either you will be healed of your ailment or you will suffer from it. And we have all known loved ones, even little children, where this healing has not taken place. They have suffered long with their sickness or perhaps even died.

“I’ll pray for your child’s healing” This may be a condolence of a sympathetic neighbor. Some may say and do this reverently. It took me a long time to realize why I cringed when people would say this to me.

This word ‘healing’ torments the caretaker to a terminally sick or severely disabled child.

Is it because I do not have enough faith that my child is not healed? Do I really want Ian to be a ‘normal’ child? Is it even my decision to desire these things?

I have spent hours struggling over this topic. Crying over Ian’s brain damage. Believing that GOD could, in an instant, heal Ian to be a ‘normal’ child.

But what if our diseases, our disabilities are for a greater purpose? Maybe we cannot see this bigger opportunity because we are so focused on being alleviated from our pain?

Throughout my process of accepting a severely brain injury child was to make peace with this concept.

GOD can heal Ian, but HE may have greater plans for him. GOD is still perfect in HIS ways, and Ian is exactly who he was supposed to be.

And this acceptance also helped me realize that there could be a ‘middle of the road’ type of healing. The withholding of more illness or improvement in circumstances could also be a form of healing. And this revelation flooded my life with blessings.

I have seen children with more brain tissue have less function than Ian. I have met children with less disability than Ian have exorbitantly more medical complications. And I have observed Ian learning new things despite his lack of brain tissue. Why is Ian exceeding his prognosis? No one can explain.

These are all manifestations of healing.

When we plea for healing, our expectations of what it looks like could be very far from how GOD truly answers our prayers. We might expect an immediate conversion to that which appears normal. Yet healing can display itself in more subtle ways.

When we petition for healing, our prayers may already be answered. We just need the eyes to see.