Why do Christians pray for people that are unwell?

[Dave RP]

I go to church with my partner and they frequently pray for people who are unwell, asking god to make them better, this leads to a number of questions.

1. Why do people pray to god to make a person better? Will god do so in Christian beliefs.

2. If yes, why did god make them unwell in the first place?

3. If god does make some people better by his ability to do so, why does he make persons a and e better, but persons b, c, d all die?

 

[Call me Nic]

I go to church with my partner and they frequently pray for people who are unwell, asking god to make them better, this leads to a number of questions.

1. Why do people pray to god to make a person better? Will god do so in Christian beliefs.

2. If yes, why did god make them unwell in the first place?

3. If god does make some people better by his ability to do so, why does he make persons a and e better, but persons b, c, d all die?

Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 5:12 - Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

A man's sin is his own fault, and a man deserves death because of his own sin. We die because we are evil. Don't blame God for this at all - God is the only one who is offering a solution, which is the free gift of salvation (salvation from ourselves) through trusting Jesus Christ. Jesus was God himself manifest in the flesh to die for us, both physically and spiritually, and pay the price for sin so that we could be given life through his name.

People dying is people's own fault, for all people have committed sin against a perfect and holy God - God is by no means required to save us or protect us in the least, and because God has perfect justice, God must punish evil. But because he loves us, he doesn't want us to die (spiritually), because frankly, dying physically is not what people should be scared of - dying spiritually is what people should be afraid of, because spiritual death is eternal punishment for their evil.

 

[JackRT]

Charles Templeton wrote in “Farewell to God” --- “According to Christian theology, God is omniscient and exists apart from time. Being omniscient he knows the end from the beginning. But if true, would this not mean that all temporal life is predetermined? If God knows the end from the beginning then nothing is subject to change --- otherwise it would not have been known from the beginning. This being so, prayer cannot possibly change anything and there is no point to it. Apart from its function as worship, prayer is based on the premise that God can be talked into running the universe according to the wishes of a devout person on his knees. But, again, try to imagine the chaos if every devout person's prayers were answered! Belief in the efficacy of prayer is a form of self-delusion. Our real prayers are not what we say while on our knees --- the facile words whispered during a prayer. They are the aspirations, attitudes, and desires that motivate our daily lives. It is easy to prime the pump and have the words gush forth in a torrent of pious phrases but the proof of what we really want, regardless of what we say we want, is evident in the way we live. “

 

[Uber Genius]

I go to church with my partner and they frequently pray for people who are unwell, asking god to make them better, this leads to a number of questions.

1. Why do people pray to god to make a person better? Will god do so in Christian beliefs.

Yes. Both in various stories in the Old Testament and New Testament, God is credited with healing thousands of people supernaturally.

2. If yes, why did god make them unwell in the first place?

There are multiple causal forces represented in theism:
God
Intelligent Agents (Man, Angels, Demons)
Nature

The Bible rarely represents God causing illness. It does occur as a judgement from time to time but with repentance comes healing in those instances.

Most illnesses and victims of natural or moral evil are said to NOT be the result of divine causation.

3. If god does make some people better by his ability to do so, why does he make persons a and e better, but persons b, c, d all die?

For the same reason he allows evil and suffering. God has created a world that has enormous good as a result of free will agents (E.G. Ghandi or Mother Teresa) and also has evil as a result of bad choices by free will agents (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc.). Suffering and sacrifice play an enormous role in creating a better world in God's economy. The details are not given as to how he chooses. But God does lead by example having suffered the loss of his Son by assassination by the Jews who falsely accused him. Jesus as well suffered on the cross and receives nothing for his suffering.

Suffering often provides a spiritual awakening as victims start to ask questions about the existence of God and if he is personal or cares.

Suffering provides personal reflection and introspection (story of Jonah) that leads to greater compassion towards others.

Finally, the stories contained in the Bible make the point that for those who trust in God, their suffering will cease.

So it is possible for God to eliminate all suffering, but not feasible given his love for all people and wanting all to come and trust him. I am not attempting a theodicy (description that answers all the why questions regarding suffering and evil) just some of the reasons recorded in scripture.

 

[Hazelelponi]

I go to church with my partner and they frequently pray for people who are unwell, asking god to make them better, this leads to a number of questions.

1. Why do people pray to god to make a person better? Will god do so in Christian beliefs.

2. If yes, why did god make them unwell in the first place?

3. If god does make some people better by his ability to do so, why does he make persons a and e better, but persons b, c, d all die?

First let's be clear. Hebrews 9:27 states that it is appointed to man to die once, after this the judgement.

Most of what the Bible refers to as "death" is referring to the second death, or the death that occurs after judgement for the unsaved/unforgiven.. Matthew 10:28 .

When God heals someone of an ailment, biblically it was either to show something about God's nature to unbelievers which pointed them to Jesus and salvation, or to show something about salvation to unbelievers which pointed them to Jesus and salvation, or to show the person doing the healing is sent from God, which in turn pointed the unsaved to Jesus and His gift of salvation.

So, if it will help someone understand more about God and His gift of salvation, it is perhaps He will heal someone, but healing in the Bible is not about avoiding dying or the trials of this life.

What praying does is draw people closer to God, as Christians have a relationship with Him, it strengthens faith and allows a better walk with God and certainly it's appropriate to ask for an end of suffering, we just can't expect the answer to always be yes, but we can expect that any illness will not be more than we/our loved ones can bear.

And in the end, it's always beautiful if God decides to use you to shine His light to the lost, in any way..

 

[Dave RP]

First let's be clear. Hebrews 9:27 states that it is appointed to man to die once, after this the judgement.

Most of what the Bible refers to as "death" is referring to the second death, or the death that occurs after judgement for the unsaved/unforgiven.. Matthew 10:28 .

When God heals someone of an ailment, biblically it was either to show something about God's nature to unbelievers which pointed them to Jesus and salvation, or to show something about salvation to unbelievers which pointed them to Jesus and salvation, or to show the person doing the healing is sent from God, which in turn pointed the unsaved to Jesus and His gift of salvation.

So, if it will help someone understand more about God and His gift of salvation, it is perhaps He will heal someone, but healing in the Bible is not about avoiding dying or the trials of this life.

What praying does is draw people closer to God, as Christians have a relationship with Him, it strengthens faith and allows a better walk with God and certainly it's appropriate to ask for an end of suffering, we just can't expect the answer to always be yes, but we can expect that any illness will not be more than we/our loved ones can bear.

And in the end, it's always beautiful if God decides to use you to shine His light to the lost, in any way..

Ok, so why bother praying for Elsie with cancer or Reg with heart failure?

That’s my question?

 

[Uber Genius]

Being omniscient he knows the end from the beginning. But if true, would this not mean that all temporal life is predetermined?

This inference is known as fatalism. It is false.

The answer lies in what causes God's knowledge. Although we think of causation preceding effect which is true in all cases with the exception of God for the very reason you pointed out in the post. Namely God's relation to time is different than ours.

God knows what we freely choose and so God's knowledge is a function of our actions. Technically, God's knowledge in prior to our free choices, but logically posterior to our free choices.

If I choose to buy vanilla ice cream I am the cause of God's foreknowledge. If I chose chocolate ice cream God would have known I chose chocolate. So God's knowledge has zero influence on my choices.

The discussion has been around since Aristotle at least. And Templeton avoids engaging the argument but rather just asserts it as if there is no discussion.

Templeton was not the most intellectually honest individual. He was a personal friend of the young Billy Graham in the 1940s, but abandoned Christianity for a host of false beliefs and poor arguments. Fatalism and the problem of evil were prominent in his account of why he rejected theism.

 

[Uber Genius]

First let's be clear. Hebrews 9:27 states that it is appointed to man to die once, after this the judgement.

Most of what the Bible refers to as "death" is referring to the second death, or the death that occurs after judgement for the unsaved/unforgiven.. Matthew 10:28 .

When God heals someone of an ailment, biblically it was either to show something about God's nature to unbelievers which pointed them to Jesus and salvation, or to show something about salvation to unbelievers which pointed them to Jesus and salvation, or to show the person doing the healing is sent from God, which in turn pointed the unsaved to Jesus and His gift of salvation.

So, if it will help someone understand more about God and His gift of salvation, it is perhaps He will heal someone, but healing in the Bible is not about avoiding dying or the trials of this life.

What praying does is draw people closer to God, as Christians have a relationship with Him, it strengthens faith and allows a better walk with God and certainly it's appropriate to ask for an end of suffering, we just can't expect the answer to always be yes, but we can expect that any illness will not be more than we/our loved ones can bear.

And in the end, it's always beautiful if God decides to use you to shine His light to the lost, in any way..

How does this engage the problem of fatalism brought up by the OP?

 

[Hazelelponi]

How does this engage the problem of fatalism brought up by the OP?

Sorry but I'm unclear how it doesn't?

 

[MoneyGuy]

Praying for the sick? It may not help but it can’t hurt.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Ok, so why bother praying for Elsie with cancer or Reg with heart failure?

That’s my question?

Why wouldn't we?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Elsie with cancer was miraculously healed and that event brought a handful of people to a saving knowledge of Christ?

I clearly answered your questions that you brought up in your OP.

We are all going to die.. if we start ruling out the ways we don't want to die we will rule out death. It's not the death that scares us, its the pain of death we are afraid to endure.

That fear doesn't come from God, it comes from ourselves, our humanity, satan.. However you see it..

When we pray for others, well when I do, I pray that God's will be done in their life and the lives of those around them. That God comfort them and help them in their time of need and ease their pain and alleviate their suffering.. to be a Presence when they need Him most..

I pray the same for myself...

We are human.. it is through God we have no fear, through our own selves we always will. Even Jesus said "My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?"

 

[Dave RP]

Praying for the sick? It may not help but it can’t hurt.

As does praying for world peace (every church every week), or end of drought (every church in drought ridden countries) or victims of earthquakes (every church in the world after a big one) yet war, drought and earthquakes continue.

Therefore my question remains - either god can interfere but doesn’t care or he doesn’t interfere. In both cases prayer makes zero difference.

So please can I ask - why in Christianity is prayer for other people or catastrophic events (presumable allowed by god) so important when it’s obviously pointless.

 

[Chinchilla]

I go to church with my partner and they frequently pray for people who are unwell, asking god to make them better, this leads to a number of questions.

1. Why do people pray to god to make a person better? Will god do so in Christian beliefs.

2. If yes, why did god make them unwell in the first place?

3. If god does make some people better by his ability to do so, why does he make persons a and e better, but persons b, c, d all die?

1) They do it wrong , they should do it this way
James 5:14-16 King James Version (KJV)
14 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:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

2)There is curse opposite to evolution called entropy , everything falls apart including the DNA so we are more and more sick over time . That's what sin did , the wage of sin is death.

3) He has purpose for everybody , living additional 5-10 years does not really matter compared to eternal life which we are promised , he gives mercy to whoever he will but the rest of us reap what we sow . When miracle happens it's usually so other people can believe and hear the gospel , some people are more stubborn than others for example Saul had to witness Christ himself to be saved .

 

[Uber Genius]

Sorry but I'm unclear how it doesn't?

How does this engage the problem of fatalism brought up by the OP?

So the question, as I understand them goes to how God chooses the things he chooses. So expected a method of how God chooses in the answer. The last one specifically is dealing with free will.

But I made a mistake. You were correctly and Biblically answering the first two questions but not the third. I took it to be the answer to the third question, due to my lack of attention.

 

[Hazelelponi]

So please can I ask - why in Christianity is prayer for other people or catastrophic events (presumable allowed by god) so important when it’s obviously pointless.

God is a living being. We worship a living God not a dead one. We worship one who actually does care.. and have a relationship with Him.

That relationship requires communication...

a healthy marriage has two people who talk about their hopes and dreams and fears, and about daily life that's boring too. Remove the communication and the relationship dies.

We seek His Face, which means we seek to know Him. We do that in communication.. in love.

Love is action, not passive. It communicates, it does the things the object of its love likes. It moves..

God loves us, He died for us, became cursed for us - and overcame for us.

But in order to know what love is, we must know it's opposite. In order to know sacrifice, we must know selfishness, in order to know good, we must know evil. And we must have choice, freedom to know slavery.

We cannot understand the scope of anything without seeing its opposite.. and we would be slaves if God didn't give us choice.. What would heaven be if we didn't choose it for ourselves but a prison of another's making?

Do "bad" things happen? Yes... and each thing teaches us something if we but draw near to God..

But if we don't pray, we have no relationship .

 

[Dave RP]

Why wouldn't we?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Elsie with cancer was miraculously healed and that event brought a handful of people to a saving knowledge of Christ?

I clearly answered your questions that you brought up in your OP.

We are all going to die.. if we start ruling out the ways we don't want to die we will rule out death. It's not the death that scares us, its the pain of death we are afraid to endure.

That fear doesn't come from God, it comes from ourselves, our humanity, satan.. However you see it..

When we pray for others, well when I do, I pray that God's will be done in their life and the lives of those around them. That God comfort them and help them in their time of need and ease their pain and alleviate their suffering.. to be a Presence when they need Him most..

I pray the same for myself...

We are human.. it is through God we have no fear, through our own selves we always will. Even Jesus said "My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?"

Well the “god why have you forsaken me” might be him being honest, his god was just that - a god not his “father”? And he knew it?

The question was would god, who’s so powerful decide to miraculously heal person A but inflict untold misery on persons B-F and their families? Not a nice god if that’s true?

 

[cvanwey]

I go to church with my partner and they frequently pray for people who are unwell, asking god to make them better, this leads to a number of questions.

1. Why do people pray to god to make a person better? Will god do so in Christian beliefs.

2. If yes, why did god make them unwell in the first place?

3. If god does make some people better by his ability to do so, why does he make persons a and e better, but persons b, c, d all die?

Eleven more questions to add to such a list:

1) A Muslim, an orthodox Jew, and a Christian pray for their friend in the hospital to recover. The friend recovers. Who takes the credit, the Muslim, the Jew, the Christian, the hospital, or other? What truth assignment function or mechanism was used besides faith, if the answer given is partially or completely not hospital related?


2) Prayer seems to only have the ability to cure illnesses and diseases in which modern science or the bodies own natural defenses were always able to heal. Is this pure coincidence?


3) If god answers your prayer request, because your prayer changes God's mind, this means God chose to fulfill your non-divine request above and beyond his previous intended divine plan for your unwanted outcome; as he instead granted your request over his previous intention. Wouldn't God have already known you were going to request this specific prayer however? If so, then the prayer was still unnecessary as god would have already intended for your prayer to be answered. To assume otherwise would admit God did not know ahead of time; rendering him fallible and not being able to read the future. So either God did not know you were going to ask for your request, demonstrating he is not all knowing, or, he was already going to grant what you asked, rendering the prayer worthless. So which answer is it? Did he not know, or was the prayer meaningless?


4) If God only answers prayers that he knows you need, than what is the point of prayer? Prayer is then only demonstrated effective if it already agrees with God's predetermined plan for you.


5) Why does God never elect to grant the regrowth of an amputated limb? Regrowing limbs in prayer would change many people's perception to claimed answered prayer, including myself, to then believe in a human interacting god. Medical science has yet to have the ability to regrow limbs. If a limb grew back, this might demonstrate a direct result from prayer, and not science or any other natural process. If and when medical science ever has the ability to regrow limbs, is this when prayer will start to take some of the credit?


6) You are diagnoses with a curable disease. You are presented with only two options for treatment, but cannot choose both. These options are medical treatment, or prayer. Which one do you choose and why?


7) Does prayer before surgery ever change the outcome? If yes, how might one know?


8) Two patients are diagnosed with cancer and both receive treatment. The one that was prayed for dies, and the one who was not prayed for lives. What rationale is presented by the religious family, who's loved one died? I would assume that the patient whom died, was not prayed for to perish.


9) What is the purpose of praying before a prepared meal? One a side note, if someone chokes and dies during dinner, was this God's will?


10) In the old testament, individuals would pray for victory in war and claim god helped them win. If the opponent had also prayed to the same God, would the outcome have changed? Either way, doesn't this demonstrate clearly that god plays favorites? Is this objective?


11) By what mechanism was used to determine God actually answers your prayers? Remember, alternate believers pray to differing Gods. They also claim to receive answers in prayer. What truth assignment function was used to determine your prayer is successful, but the differing prayed to God are all false or unanswered?

 

[DogmaHunter]

I go to church with my partner and they frequently pray for people who are unwell, asking god to make them better, this leads to a number of questions.

1. Why do people pray to god to make a person better? Will god do so in Christian beliefs.

2. If yes, why did god make them unwell in the first place?

3. If god does make some people better by his ability to do so, why does he make persons a and e better, but persons b, c, d all die?

4. If this god exists, is benevolent, omni-potent and thus has the power to make people better.... why doesn't he just do so automatically? Why wait till someone asks for it?

 

[DogmaHunter]

Yes. Both in various stories in the Old Testament and New Testament, God is credited with healing thousands of people supernaturally.



There are multiple causal forces represented in theism:
God
Intelligent Agents (Man, Angels, Demons)
Nature

The Bible rarely represents God causing illness. It does occur as a judgement from time to time but with repentance comes healing in those instances.

Most illnesses and victims of natural or moral evil are said to NOT be the result of divine causation.


For the same reason he allows evil and suffering. God has created a world that has enormous good as a result of free will agents (E.G. Ghandi or Mother Teresa) and also has evil as a result of bad choices by free will agents (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc.). Suffering and sacrifice play an enormous role in creating a better world in God's economy. The details are not given as to how he chooses. But God does lead by example having suffered the loss of his Son by assassination by the Jews who falsely accused him. Jesus as well suffered on the cross and receives nothing for his suffering.

Suffering often provides a spiritual awakening as victims start to ask questions about the existence of God and if he is personal or cares.

Suffering provides personal reflection and introspection (story of Jonah) that leads to greater compassion towards others.

Finally, the stories contained in the Bible make the point that for those who trust in God, their suffering will cease.

So it is possible for God to eliminate all suffering, but not feasible given his love for all people and wanting all to come and trust him. I am not attempting a theodicy (description that answers all the why questions regarding suffering and evil) just some of the reasons recorded in scripture.

Just because I can't help it, I feel compelled to point out that by no standard can "Mother Teresa" be considered a good person.

 

[Southernscotty]

We do pray to "bend God's arm" We pray to conform to His will.

Praying for others—and this applies to prayer in general—is an easy thing to question. Why should we pray if God already has our best interests at heart? He is wiser than we are, by a long shot. Why does He need us to pray? Wouldn’t it be better to just trust Him to do what’s best? It’s true that God is wiser than we are (1 Corinthians 1:25) and that we should trust Him (Proverbs 3:5–6). And it’s for those very reasons that we need to pray, because praying for ourselves and praying for others is something God commands us to do.

Praying for others is recommended as a source of healing (James 5:16) along with confession. James tells us that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Now, does this mean that only the prayers of good people are heard? No, the word righteous in the Bible refers to those who have faith and are covered by Jesus’ righteousness (Romans 5:1; 3:21–22; 4:2–3).

Jesus told us to pray in His name (John 14:13–14). If you do something “in the name of” someone else, it means you do it according to his wishes. Therefore, knowing God and understanding Him is an integral part of prayer. Now we begin to see why praying for others is important. Prayer is not about getting everything we want or keeping others safe, healthy, and problem-free at all times. Prayer is a powerful way in which we get to know our Savior, and it also brings believers together. Effective prayer for others will bring us closer to God, because effective prayer is based on a knowledge of His will (1 John 5:14). It will also bring us closer to others, as we learn more about them and focus on their needs.

For most of us, praying for others tends to run along these lines: Lord, provide my friend with a job, a car that runs, good health, and safety. If we really know someone well, we might pray for his or her marriage or other relationships. There is nothing wrong with praying for these things; in fact, the Bible encourages us to pray for everything and, doing so, quell our anxieties (Philippians 4:6). It is right to pray for health and for good things to happen (3 John 1:2).

However, most of the prayers recorded in the Bible are of another type. When Jesus was praying for others, He prayed for their faith (Luke 22:32), He prayed against temptation in their lives (Luke 22:40), He prayed for their unity (John 17:11), and He prayed for their sanctification (John 17:17). Paul prayed for the salvation of the lost (Romans 10:1); he prayed that the brothers would stay on the right path (2 Corinthians 13:7); he prayed that believers would be strengthened by the Spirit, rooted and grounded in love, able to comprehend God’s love, and filled with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14–19). These are all prayers for spiritualblessings; they are all “in Jesus’ name” and according to the Father’s will—prayers that are guaranteed to find a “yes” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Praying for others is important because it fulfills a New Testament command. We are to pray for all people (1 Timothy 2:1). We are to pray for government leaders (1 Timothy 2:2). We are to pray for the unsaved (1 Timothy 2:3). We are to pray for fellow Christians (Ephesians 6:18). We are to pray for ministers of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19–20). We are to pray for the persecuted church (Hebrews 13:3). Praying for others gets our focus off of ourselves and onto the needs around us. As we “carry each other’s burdens,” we “will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Begin praying for others today and help to build up the body of Christ.