Praying For The Sick

[HAMel]

You know, there's certainly nothing wrong with praying for our sick loved ones. Some illnesses can and will be overcome the result of the right medication, through necessary surgeries, proper rehab, etc., to include our Lord can and often does honor our prayer request for healing.

Have you ever stopped to think that while we might languish for the healing of a loved one their passing is the ultimate healing? That is, of course, if they are believers.

I think it very possible that while we languish for a loved one it's often the result of our selfishness. None of us are ready to die today but then again..., who would not want to be ushered into paradise? And who among us would really not want one of our loved ones to open their eyes in paradise.

By what authority do I say this? My father. Due to my selfishness he languished for fourteen days after the fact. Yes, I was selfish and that last day there in his hospital room the Lord spoke to me by impressing upon my heart..., "it's time." I told my mother it was time to go and the call that he had passed was waiting for us when we got home.

 

[annsni]

Was he on life support? That is a really tough decision to make to disconnect our loved ones from the machines that make them seem alive.

 

[Deacon]

May God continue to bless you and your mother and carry you through this time of temporary separation from your loved one.

Rob

 

[HAMel]

No, there wasn't any life support involved and this all happened a few years ago. Mom is now gone also.

No, the issue here is that I wasn't ready to accept the end for my father. You know, we are all guilty of having a "Haunted Conscience". We think back to things we have done; things we have said; attitudes that were not appropriate at the time; our own selfishness; accompanied with a host of attributes that we're not really all that proud of. Hence, my reference to a "Haunted Conscience" after the fact.

By v-3 we read, "The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; thou will make all his bed in his sickness." It was my selfishness that caused the extra two weeks when he could have just moved right into paradise. I prolonged that move.

I read in Psalm 41 that David suffered the same as we do today. He certainly committed many sins in his day not only against God but against his own integrity. After the fact he suffered from that "Haunted Conscience" that affects all of us. In the end however he "Blessed the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen." v-13.

This "Haunted Conscience" we deal with is really very good for us. The problem comes in when one dwells on it all causing those dreaded guilt feelings. Confess it and let the Lord handle it. Over time I came to realize my selfishness. A sin in and of itself.

 

[annsni]

See, I don't believe that anything we do can prevent someone from dying just because of our heart and emotions. Even had you been ready to let him go, he may have hung on for those two weeks anyway. Had he gone right away, your feelings still would have been the same but they just would have been hit with the fact that your dad died.

 

[HAMel]

@annsni, perhaps you're right but I would still like to believe our Lord has a heart and is very compassionate toward us given the right set of circumstances.

 

[Scarlett O.]

Perhaps the Lord allowed him to linger until you were ready to let him go?

The more we see death, the more our prayers turn to "take him/her home" for those who are terminally ill and suffering with no healing in sight. It's hard - that I won't deny. My mother's sister lingered for four days after a brain stem stroke. The decision was made for her not to be placed on machines and they put her in a regular room and we just waited. My mother and I spent the second night with her in the hospital room. She was of course, for all practical purposes, gone. Her fleshly shell took four days to stop functioning.

I can remember on during the first 24 hours of all the madness, my mother wanting her so badly to be healed. On the night that she and I stayed at the hospital, my mother made the change. She was lying in the bed with her and began to whisper to her, "Now, sister, you just go on and leave us. Jesus is waiting for you and so is Mama and Daddy. You just go on home." My aunt, of course, heard nothing. But my mother came to grips with the fact that she wasn't coming back.

 

[HAMel]

Perhaps the Lord allowed him to linger until you were ready to let him go?

Scarlett O., that's exactly how I understood it to be. If it wasn't for situations like this where would our hindsight originate from?

 

[salzer mtn]

I believe as Ann. Eccl 8:8 There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war.

 

[HAMel]

Okay..., you all win.

After a long absence from this BB and after hearing it was under new management I did consider that perhaps a change of heart and attitude had come. But, alas, that didn't happen.

What I believe to be a personal exchange between my Lord and myself while my earthly father was dying with me trying to deal with it, was obviously to some of you, just an absolute "pie in the sky" dream conjured up in my mind to ease the frustration(s) of that time.

I can only hope that when I grow up I'll be as grounded and as knowledgeable as some of you in all things spiritual. In the meantime can't ya' just see ALL of the Heavenly Host just a-rolling on those eternal clouds, hee-hawing, slapping each other on the back and just having a field day at my ignorance? Can't ya' just see it? Just one big comedy for all who have gone before me.

Well, that's what I get for trying to be honest. But don't worry..., I'll get over it. You all have a good one.

 

[righteousdude2]

Perhaps the Lord allowed him to linger until you were ready to let him go?

Scarlett O., that's exactly how I understood it to be. If it wasn't for situations like this where would our hindsight originate from?

Perhaps the Lord allowed him to linger until you were ready to let him go?

The more we see death, the more our prayers turn to "take him/her home" for those who are terminally ill and suffering with no healing in sight. It's hard - that I won't deny. My mother's sister lingered for four days after a brain stem stroke. The decision was made for her not to be placed on machines and they put her in a regular room and we just waited. My mother and I spent the second night with her in the hospital room. She was of course, for all practical purposes, gone. Her fleshly shell took four days to stop functioning.

I can remember on during the first 24 hours of all the madness, my mother wanting her so badly to be healed. On the night that she and I stayed at the hospital, my mother made the change. She was lying in the bed with her and began to whisper to her, "Now, sister, you just go on and leave us. Jesus is waiting for you and so is Mama and Daddy. You just go on home." My aunt, of course, heard nothing. But my mother came to grips with the fact that she wasn't coming back.

I agree in that my mom was not ready to let my dad go, which is why he lingered for a few months, getting worse with each day. I also believe my family was holding too, and I prayed with my wife for the suffering to end, and that prayer was finally answered. There is some truth in letting go and letting God.

 

[dyanmarie25]

As for me, prayers are really powerful. In this kind of scenario which is already a matter of life and death, we can only ask for a miracle. And I believe God can do great wonders only if we will just put all our trust on Him. It wouldn't hurt to just close your eyes and pray, right?

 

[pwarbi]

Praying for someone who is sick works on two levels for me. I'm praying that they will get better and everything will be ok, but at the same time I'm asking for the strength to be able to handle the situation, whatever God decides to do.

If a person is suffering it's selfish of me to pray for them to keep on living and suffering, so that's why I pray also for myself as a way of asking God to make me myself stronger.