So often we pray for healing for someone, thinking that God never wants anyone to be sick. The error of that thinking is that, if everyone who trusted Christ was never sick, they would never die and pass to their eternal home, they would just be on this wicked planet enduring the evil here. Why would we want to stay here when we can go home, to our Lord and the place He has prepared for us.
We only want to remain on earth as long as God is not finished using us yet.
We never know when our permanent healing will take place, that final journey to our heavenly home. My goal is to be where God wants me, whether it be "here, there or in the air."
One time I prayed for healing for an elderly godly woman, she died and others said my prayer was not answered... but it was, she was taken to her heavenly home and will never be ill again. When I prayed for healing, I was thinking of earthly healing, but after she passed, God showed me that His healing is sometimes to take us out of our earthly bodies to be one day replaced with a heavenly glorified body.
So often we think almost entirely of this world, as though we are not completely convinced of a place called heaven. There is no greater healing than fleshly healing, to die to this world and go home to heaven where we will never experience anything sad ever again is the greater gain.
Philippians 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
I have another "old person" story that blesses my heart. I knew of an elderly man a few years ago who had a heart attack. He was in his nineties so not much of a surprise. This godly man who spoke of the Lord often, didn't die from the heart attack but was unconscious in his hospital bed for a few hours. When he woke up he looked around with disappointment, he said to the nurses upon waking up, "oh no, I am still here." When he went into the hospital he had the expectation that he would probably be going home to the Lord, when that didn't happen he felt disappointed. He lived a couple of more years and then he got to go home.
Our prayers ought to always be, for God's will, we know it is best, how can we think any other way. And, if our perspective is Christ, then going home is something to be excited about.
Malachi 4:2 ""But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall."
Revelation 21:4 "and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
The prayer I say the most for others is that God will give them peace, bring strength to their spirit and give them great joy through everything. I also pray that if there is a spiritual need for their families, that God would use the circumstance to turn the hearts of people to Him. We can hardly go wrong praying spiritually for others.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 "“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose trust is the Lord. 8 “For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit."
