James 5:14-16
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
2 Kings 5:8-14
8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, washyourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his handover the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.
13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
Sometimes, it’s easier to hurt than to be healed. The way to healing can often be marked with concessions that we don’t necessarily want to make. In the past couple of years, I’ve sought healing from some post traumatic images related to medical procedures in my very early childhood. Allowing help was the hard part, and I’m so thankful for the ERMD procedure that has erased this image from my mind. Now, what happened to me over 30 years ago is not more fresh that what I ate for breakfast. When we were trying to have our first child, the hardest part was asking our Sunday School class to pray. God desires us to pursue our healing with both advanced medicine (the oil was advanced medicine at that time) and with prayer. He miraculously heals, but he often calls us out of our comfort zone and pride to do so; and he often uses advanced medical procedures as part of that healing. Through our faith, humility, trust, and submission to Him, we make room for His blessings on our lives. Sometimes, he blesses by healing. Sometimes, he blesses us in other ways, instead.