How Should I Pray to God for Healing?

Max Lucado

Pastor and Author
Updated Nov 02, 2018
How Should I Pray to God for Healing?
"Wherever there is sickness there is an opportunity for God to display his glory," says Max Lucado, author of Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer. Max outlines what happens with physical healing, whether it is immediate, gradual, or eventual.

The following is a transcribed Video Q&A, so the text may not read like an edited article would. Scroll to the bottom to view this video in its entirety. 

We can come to our Heavenly Father and ask him to heal us, because he wants us to be whole. He wants us to be whole not just in our spirit and soul, but also in our body. Remember, the big idea of the bible is to reestablish the Garden of Eden, to take us back to the way we were. Adam and Eve, they didn't struggle with bursitis, or spinal issues, or crick in the neck. Wherever there is a sickness there is an opportunity for God to display his glory.

Now, where we get tangled up is that, when is God going to display his glory? And to what degree are we going to be healed? In the book I talk about, we've got to begin by remembering that sickness is under the domain of God. He didn't create it, but he still has authority over it. And so, in the book I say, "You can expect to healed." Will you be healed immediately? I hope so. Will you be healed gradually? That happens quite often. But all of us will be healed ultimately, and it's not a cop-out to say that our healing will happen on the other side of death. That's the ultimate healing.

We can take absolute assurance that healing will come. If he heals you gradually that means this particular affliction is being used for his glory, for the development of your character, maybe as a sermon. One of the men in our church has struggled with a muscular issue for many, many years, but boy, he is such an example. All of us have met people who inspire us through their affliction, so that could be part of their testimony, but God is still healing them. And then, all of us will be healed ultimately, so it's essential during prayer to talk to God about what hurts us physically, it really is, and to let God speak to them. To comfort us, to bring wisdom into that part of our lives.

Originally published Thursday, 05 November 2015.