Editor’s note: We’re picking up this reflection mid-conversation: the author began wrestling last time with what Jesus meant by ‘ask anything in My name,’ and here he keeps digging, this time turning the question toward his own medical history and two sobering Old Testament kings. It’s an honest, unfinished kind of piece — the sort we like running because it doesn’t pretend to have arrived at a tidy formula for prayer and healing. Read it as one believer’s notebook, not a doctrine of divine healing.
Where I Left Off
In part 1 of this article, I shared my quest to understand what Jesus meant when He said, “ask for anything in My name and it will be given to you.” It is important to understand this. Imagine having the creator of the universe willing to give you whatever you want. It’s like holding the power of a nuclear bomb in your hand. That’s scary power.
I was specifically interested in this claim because for over a year now I have been praying that my wife and me would have good health to enjoy the life God has given us. I said in part 1 that I did not feel like I completely understood, or completely believed, His claim. I also said I would do a follow-up article to hopefully finish what I started as far as understanding the passage.
Well, here it is.
Answered Prayer
Interestingly, one week after sharing part 1 of this article with my Sunday School class about praying for health for my wife and me, we were at a church dinner where the speaker at the event got up and spoke about answered prayer in his life. He recounted the times he was hunted down in a foreign country for being a Christian. Friends whose doctors said they had only months to live or would never be able to walk or talk again, and yet, years later, there they were, walking and talking. And there he was; those who threatened him for being Christian never found him. This was no coincidence that he spoke on that very topic after I was looking for understanding about the same thing.
Listing God’s healing
So, I decided I needed to talk with this guy.
But before I met with him, I thought maybe I should lay out what I had been praying for. In other words, a list of my complaints of unanswered prayers. With this, I could show him that maybe God doesn’t answer all prayers. Certainly not mine.
My list quickly grew, but not for the unanswered prayers I had intended; rather, it quickly turned into a list of the health and safety God had given me over the years that I had not even prayed for, much less thanked Him for. After completing the list, it was apparent to me that God had been providing me health and safety since I can remember. He just gave it to me out of the goodness of His heart.
It took looking back at my life to see that God has been faithfully protecting and healing me. So why do I have such trouble trusting Him to do the same for my life going forward?
Editor’s note – That flipped list is worth sitting with. It’s a common pattern: we catalog what we think God owes us and forget the years of ordinary mercy we never thought to name as answered prayer at all.
The Great Physician
While the Bible never specifically calls God “the great physician,” consider what the Bible has to say about Him.
"I am the LORD, your healer." [Exodus 15:26]
He heals all your diseases. [Psalm 103:2-3]
"I put to death and I bring to life... I have wounded and I will heal." [Deuteronomy 32:39]
Not to mention all the healing miracles of Jesus in the New Testament.
Past Medical Treatments
So now, the question that pops into my mind is “what about all the past medical treatments I have undergone without consulting God? Oh sure, I prayed that God would guide the surgeons’ hands during operations and procedures. But did I pray for God to treat my ailment before I ever saw a surgeon?”
Listen to what happened to King Asa.
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. So Asa lay down with his fathers, and died in the forty-first year of his reign. [2 Chronicles 16:12-13]
Another example is King Ahaziah.
And Ahaziah fell through the window lattice in his upper chamber, which was in Samaria, and became ill. ... the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, "Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?' Now therefore, this is what the Lord says: 'You will not get down from the bed upon which you have lain, but you shall certainly die.'" [2 Kings 1:2-4]
It’s apparent from these examples that God doesn’t like it when we don’t go to Him for healing. But He does like it when we confess our weaknesses to Him. So, what about those past medical treatments I underwent without consulting God first? I need to confess to God my past lack of faith in Him as demonstrated by going to physicians first and praying to God second, like Asa and Ahaziah.
Editor’s note – Asa and Ahaziah are sobering company to keep. It’s worth noting that Scripture doesn’t condemn physicians themselves — elsewhere Luke is called “the beloved physician” — the warning here is against shutting God out of the process entirely, not against medicine itself.
Where to?
Consider your past with God. Remember what He has done for you. List them, “name them one by one,” as the hymn says. Then thank God for them.
Consider your past; don’t feel really bad about going to physicians first. After all, this is twenty-first-century America. We have specialists for everything, and a pill or shot cures all ailments, unless it doesn’t. But maybe we need to confess not going to Him first.
Now to the future, when medical problems arise, make prayer your first option. As I said earlier, it’s like holding an atomic bomb between your palms. If you feel God is saying He will take care of your medical issue, then patiently wait. If not, listen to your doctor.
Personal Testimony
Let me tell you about a man in our Sunday School. He broke his leg. It’s taking a long time to heal. He has stated many times that broken leg has taught him to be thankful for all the things in his life that he had nothing to do with. It was all from God.
As I look over that list of God’s protection and healing in my life, I quickly realize that God has been healing and protecting me all my life, when I didn’t even ask. How much more might He heal and protect if I ask Him for it…first.
Editor’s note – Notice what the broken leg produced: not bitterness, but a long, slow inventory of grace. That’s often how gratitude works — it takes an interruption to make us count the mercies we’d stopped noticing.
A Word from the Editor
The author’s closing question — what if God would heal and protect even more, if only we asked Him first — echoes James 4:2: “You do not have because you do not ask.” Prayer isn’t a vending machine, and healing isn’t guaranteed on our timetable, but Scripture never once tells us that asking is optional. Whatever the outcome, take your ailments, your fears, and your gratitude to Him first, before you ever reach for the phone to call the doctor.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Distributed by – BCWorldview.org
Editor Comment: The turn where your list of complaints becomes a list of forgotten mercies is the strongest moment in the piece, and you let it surprise you rather than forcing the lesson. Setting your own hospital visits next to Asa and Ahaziah's story gives the reflection real weight without ever feeling heavy-handed.