31. Should we pray that people get well or that they get saved?
Maybe both, and maybe in the exact order we see in Isaiah 53. Jesus is our salvation, and He can heal us. If someone has not accepted Christ, I pray that they will come to salvation. I thank God for extending a person’s life, even when that person is suffering, realizing it might very well be a gift from above. It might lead to the person’s salvation or beautifully used by God for His Glory.
This is the kind of information people miss in their research about when in life, the salvation experience typically takes place. If on the other hand a person is a believer, I pray for healing that they may live longer to glorify the Lord. Some people have a life of pain that God uses to bring others to Christ. All of this is summarized by saying, we seek God’s will for the person, and we hope that our prayers are in line with God’s will.
I had a previous boss who loved the Lord and was on his death bed. His children told me that he asked if I would visit him. He had mesothelioma and a few short hours after my visit, he died. I understand that I was the last one to pray with him. Praise God this gentleman knew the Lord.
I had an adult student I thought was dying of a heart attack in the hospital. I shared Christ and thought he was ready to make a decision to serve the Lord. Right then, the doctor walked in and said, “You are having major tendon and muscle spasms in your back.” He then decided to live his life as he had in the past. My student, as far as I know, never committed his life to the Lord, but he is still alive and so the story is still being written. For a few years he owned and operated several bars. Additionally, he has made a good amount of money by day trading. I would never say to him “Who cares?” But that is my emotion. As a kid in MN, we used to say, “Big Wow!”
From a BBC article, June 18, 2018: “Most of the time, we go through our days unaware, not thinking of our mortality,” says Chris Feudtner, a pediatrician and ethicist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. “We cope by focusing on the things more directly in front of us.”
Learn to be wise and focus on what will occupy your eternity! It might be right in front of you!
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV 5 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”