I once was talking with a childhood friend who's spent most of her adult years struggling with a serious illness. When I asked how she coped, she said it was most helpful to know that others were praying for her.
Set as we are in a society that functions only with natural causes and effects, prayer for the sick adds the supernatural, asking the touch of heaven upon scientific medical procedures. God has demonstrated time and again His way of doing things is to step into our closed system of natural cause and effect. The chief example is the comin of His Son. From the unseen world into ours comes Christ, and from His coming God's interventions multiply outward. Our prayers for those in need demonstrate our belief that God truly is involved in day-to-day things. People of prayer really do live by faith, not just sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
So to any of you who are sick, facing surgery, undergoing treatments, longing for health, we assure you of our prayers. Life is not just the horizontal dimension of cause and effect that we struggle with day-in and day-out. Reality is also vertical, and that dimension we invoke for you.
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