Little
Johnny raised his hand and said to his teacher, “Miss, can I go to the toilet?”
Ever true to her vocation, Johnny’s teacher
took every opportunity to teach. “You mean, may I go to the bathroom.” Little
Johnny replied with a question, “Well, can I?” Discerning the urgency of
the present situation, the teacher granted Johnny’s request, “Yes, you may.”
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Hezekiah's Prayer for Healing
(Image from the Net) |
Whereas
the word can speaks of ability, may speaks of an optional possibility
or probability. God can do miraculous things. When it comes to God and our
diseases it’s not can I be healed, but rather, heavenly Father, may I
be healed? God can heal us, but He may or He may not. For
those of us who are still alive, we have perhaps seen or experienced the two ways
God heals us: a) the rare miraculous, and b) the common use of secondary means –
such as medical technology, surgical precision, and modern medicine as administered
by doctors etc. As Christians we certainly give God the glory for those rare
miraculous healings, however, when it comes to the latter, perhaps we’re not
always so enthusiastic about glorifying God when He instead chooses to use instruments.
Thus, we glorify God for apparent ‘supernatural’ healing, but not so much for
‘natural’ healing, yet both are from Him. He can use the extraordinary
or He may use the ordinary or He may not use either.
James
Montgomery Boice had liver cancer. His congregation and friends told him they
were praying to God for his healing. As a teacher and preacher true to his
calling, he responded by saying to his congregation,
“A
relevant question, I guess, is when you pray, pray for what? Should you pray
for a miracle? Well, you’re free to do that, of course. My general impression
is that the God who is able to do miracles, and He certainly can, is also able
to keep you from getting the problem in the first place. So, although miracles
do happen, they’re rare. A miracle, by definition, has to be an unusual thing.
I think it’s far more profitable to pray for wisdom for the doctors. Doctors
have a great deal of experience, of course, in their expertise, but they are not
omniscient. They do make mistakes. And then also, for the effectiveness of the
treatment. Sometimes it does very well, and sometimes not so well, and that is
certainly a legitimate thing to pray for. Above all, I would say, pray for the
glory of God. If you think of God glorifying Himself in history, and you say,
where in all of history has God most glorified Himself? He did it at the cross
of Jesus Christ. And it wasn’t by delivering Jesus from the cross, though He
could have. Jesus said, “Don’t you think I could call down from My Father ten
legions of angels for My defence?” But He didn’t do that. And yet that’s where
God is most glorified.”
James
Montgomery Boice died on the 15th of June 2000 at the age of 61 from liver cancer.
He was a man of prayer, a most humble man of prayer. I saw him at a conference
on Mount Tamborine, Queensland in the 90s. His voice reminded me of the famous
actor, Richard Widmark, who played Jim Bowie in the 1960 movie The Alamo,
along with John Wayne as Davy Crocket. (We can make idols out of great
actors, and we sometimes do. As Christians, we sometimes may be guilty
of doing something similar with great preachers and teachers of the faith!) Dr
Boice had just finished delivering a great talk, after which we were having a
break. I wanted to do some backslapping and tell him how brilliant his lecture was.
The place was abuzz, and I couldn’t find him anywhere in the crowd. I noticed
that a side door was slightly ajar. I squinted through the opening. There was
the solitary figure of Dr Boice, standing with head bowed and eyes closed, with
his back against the wall as if trying to hide. He was deep in prayer with his
Lord. I returned to the crowd with that image of that saint burnt forever into
my retina, yes, my heart. Even when no one could see him, he was teaching us
about Jesus! Jesus often retreated from the great crowd to pray (Luke 5:16) and
taught His disciples to do likewise (Mark 3:7; Luke 9:10).
As
the cross began to cast its shadow of death upon Jesus, our great Teacher and
Preacher, we observe the following, “Then Jesus went with his disciples to
a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over
there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him,
and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul
is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch
with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and
prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.
Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and
found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one
hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into
temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away a
second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to
be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” (Matt. 26:36-42 NIV).
There’s
the old story about the guy on the roof of his house in a flood with the water
rising, refusing help from a boat and then a chopper saying he was praying that
God would save him. He was praying for a miracle, but God had already sent him
the means for him to be saved from the deluge. He couldn’t see it because he was
waiting for the miraculous.
God
wants us to pray to Him. He can do the miraculous, but more often than
not heals us by ordinary means. Remember that Paul recommended to Timothy that he use
a little wine to heal his stomach ailment and frequent illnesses (1 Tim. 5:23).
We are given a little peak behind the scenes where Hezekiah humbly prays to God
with tears because he is going to die. Then the Lord told Isaiah to tell
Hezekiah, “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add
fifteen years to your life” (Isa. 38:5). However, though God can,
He didn’t use the extraordinary to heal Hezekiah, but the ordinary, “Isaiah
had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will
recover” (Isa. 38:21; 2 Kings 20:1-7).
Therefore,
when we are praying for a miracle, we must not forget that God, though He can do the miraculous, He may and is more likely to use the ordinary. His
is the glory! And we must also be prepared for the worst, as was James
Montgomery Boice, yes, as was Jesus. In the words of Job “Though he slay me,
yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15a).
