As you may have seen on the news (or experienced in person), Tulsa suffered a major ice storm a few weeks ago. At the height of the storm, almost 90% of the city was without electricity.
We were very fortunate to only have our electricity out for about 36 hours, but many people were without electricity for a week or more.
We (our family and Sheila's mom and dad) have a total of 5 houses, several outbuildings, more cars than we can drive and a bus on about 8.5 beautiful acres with lots of trees - all of which suffered at least some damage. Literally hundreds of tree limbs, many of them very large, broke and fell during the ice storm. We were very blessed in that we did not suffer any major damage to any of our structures or anything of value, although limbs fell all around everything.
I guess another blessing is that we (by sometime this summer when we are finished cutting up all the downed limbs and taking out the trees that were too damaged to survive) will soon have a lifetime supply of firewood!
Many people were not so fortunate.
Sheila and I both work in the legal field. Sheila is the Administrator (financial and HR manager) of a law firm and I manage our business which is a placement agency for legal professionals.
One of the great tragedies of the ice storm was that a couple, both well known and respected Tulsa attorneys, had their house catch on fire in the middle of the night as they tried to use their fireplace for heat. Both of them died of smoke inhalation. He was dead by the time the firefighters found him and she passed away about a week later, never having regained consciousness.
I did not attend the funeral, but heard that at his service, the minister reported that the prognosis for the wife was very bleak and she was not expected to live, and he asked that people pray for her passing.
Now, while I think I understand what he was asking, it also really bothered me.
You see, when I read my Bible, I see a God who could heal any disease, who could perform any miracle, who could even raise the dead.
My Bible also tells me that my God is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow - that He does not change.
My Bible tells me that I should pray for anyone who is sick and that God will raise them up, that the fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much, that whatever I ask in Jesus Name will be done and that if I command, in faith, a mountain to move that it will move.
Now, I am realistic enough to know that God does not always answer prayers exactly the way I pray them. Everyone I've prayed for to be healed, has not been healed exactly like I've prayed it. God has not granted me everything I've asked in prayer and not everything I have prayed for has come to pass.
I understand that God will not heal everyone, because my Bible also says that it is appointed to man once to die and so there will come a time for all of us that we will not be physically healed and will die. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but Lazarus is not still alive. Each of us will die sometime.
BUT - I have also prayed when God has been gracious and has provided the healing for which I and other were praying.
Last year, I prayed for a young man named Tommy whom I had never even met (and still have not) who had been diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
His mother said that about 4 years previous, he had gone from being a happy, normal teenager to being unable to function on his own, his life destroyed by this affliction and that he had to be heavily medicated just to be managed. I began to pray that God would deliver him and after a week or so of fervent prayer, I felt a real peace about the situation. About 6 weeks later, I received an email from his mother telling me that he was so much better, that it was like he had been healed. I emailed back that maybe it seemed like her son had been healed, because God had healed him.
Several years ago, our sister-in-law, fell into a coma following knee replacement surgery. Doctor's told us that MRIs, CT scans and brain scans showed severe brain damage. They said that there was a 92% chance that she would never come out of the coma and that if she did (an 8% chance of that), she would remain in a vegetative state, unable to communicate or care for herself in any way. There were a lot of us who refused to believe that and we began to pray. Every time I visited her, I would whisper in her ear, over and over again, "In the name of Jesus, wake up and be well." About 6 weeks later, she woke up and was immediately able to to understand us and to talk to us. It has been a long haul, more than 100 days in the hospital and much therapy, but today, other than some short term memory issues, she is fully healed.
I could list several other instances when prayers have been miraculously answered.
And, I could also tell you of times when they have not.
I don't think that any of us will fully understand in this life, why God answers some prayers just as we pray them and other time it seems in our limited view that He does not. I don't know why sometime God still does the miraculous and some times He does not.
But, I think that we must, in faith, continue to pray for and continue to expect the miraculous. I think we must never sell God short, never limit Him with our prayers.
On those occasions when God is gracious and sends the miracle, then we praise Him and give Him all the glory!
On those occasions when God, in His great purpose and wisdom, does not send the miracle (at least not as we've prayed it), then we praise Him and give Him all the glory!
So - back to the title of this post. If I am ever diagnosed with a life threatening disease, if I ever suffered severe brain damage, please do not pray for my passing, but leave that part up to God. In fact, if you are not willing to pray, in faith, for my complete and miraculous healing, please do not pray for me!
If God decides to heal me, then we can praise Him together! But, if God decides instead that it is my time to be called home, then throw me a going home celebration filled with praise and worship and great joy and tell everyone you know how good God was to Jim Rutherford!
BTW - if you ever ask me to pray for you, please know that I'll be praying and expecting a miraculous healing from God on your behalf!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
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