How To Pray For Healing: The God HONORING Way To Do It

When it comes to the subject of how to pray for healing, there are all sorts of opinions out there.

There are also plenty of con-men out there who will take your money in exchange for a promise to pray for your healing. If you give them a “love offering”, they will “lovingly” pray to God that you will be healed.

Yeah…no thanks.

This is why it’s so critical that we go to scripture regarding the question of how to pray for healing. God has given us clear instructions on the matter and we don’t need to listen to anyone’s opinions or be taken in by anyone who’s simply after money.

The word of God is our North Star and we look to it and it alone for direction and guidance.

Of course, this raises the critical question: what does the Bible say regarding how to pray for healing?

Are we supposed to pray for healing?

Are there certain types of prayers that we should be praying?

Let’s see what the Bible has to say.

Should We Pray For Miraculous Healing?

I think the first and most obvious question is whether we should even pray for healing in the first place.

After all, God is sovereign. He ordains ALL things, including sickness, for our good and his glory. If this is the case, is it right for us to ask God to heal us and others from sickness?

Thankfully, I don’t think this question is that complicated. I believe that Scripture makes it clear that we can, and indeed should pray for miraculous healings.

Again and again, throughout the gospels, Jesus healed the sick. As it says in Matthew 8:16, “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.“

While it’s true that the miracles performed by Jesus were intended to prove that he was indeed the Messiah, it’s also true that the same Jesus rules and reigns today. The same Jesus who healed the sick is eager to answer our prayers today.

I think this is why James says, “And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.“

When we pray for healing, we are praying to the living God who hears our prayers and often answers them in miraculous ways.

So should we pray for healing? Yes, we should. God is eager and ready to answer those prayers.

How To Pray For Healing: With Faith

So when we pray for healing, how should we pray?

First and foremost, we should pray to God with faith. James says that it is the “prayer of faith” that leads to healing.

To be clear, faith is not magic. It’s not like if we pray with faith, God MUST answer our prayers. God is God and he will do whatever he pleases.

On the other hand, the prayer of faith truly pleases God. When we believe that God can and even will heal, it honors him. We are saying, “God, we will believe that you are powerful enough and good enough to heal this person.”

God responds to the prayer of faith. He acts. He does great and powerful things. In James 5:17-18, James says:

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

There was nothing special about Elijah or his prayers. The reason Elijah’s extraordinary requests were answered was because Elijah served an extraordinary God.

We serve that same extraordinary God. The God who does great, mind-boggling things in response to our prayers. He is not limited by circumstances, cannot be hemmed in by what’s “possible”. He is our omnipotent God and he can heal the sick in an instant.

When we pray for healing, faith should be woven throughout our prayers. Faith that God is good and powerful and that he wants to heal.

Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

My own soul’s conviction is that prayer is the grandest power in the entire universe, that it has a more omnipotent force than electricity, attraction, gravitation, or any other of those other secret forces which men have called by name, but which they do not understand.

Pray With Confidence

In addition to praying for healing with faith, we should also possess a distinct confidence when we pray. This is related to having faith but with a slightly different flavor.

In Matthew 7:11, Jesus said:

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

When we pray, we can have confidence that God is our good, gracious Father. A Father who delights to give good gifts to his children.

I absolutely love giving gifts to my kids. It brings me so much joy. If I, a sinful man, take so much joy in giving gifts to my kids, how much more joy does our sinless, good Father love to give good gifts to us?

And so when we pray to God for healing, we should be filled with confidence that he wants to do good to us. We don’t have to twist God’s arm to get him to bless us. He absolutely loves to bless his kids.

He is the source of unlimited good. God’s goodness doesn’t become less when he gives good gifts to us.

So let us pray for healing with deep, heartfelt confidence in our good, faithful, gift-giving God.

Pray For Healing With Submission

We should pray with faith. We should pray with confidence. And undergirding both of those prayers should be a deep submission to our mighty, good God.

God is the one in complete control of every circumstance. He can heal in a moment. But there are also times when God chooses not to heal because he has something better in mind.

As it says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

This is a glorious, breathtaking, confidence-giving verse. God works all things, including every bit of sickness and pain, for our good and his glory. All things – every backache and migraine and cancer diagnosis – are being woven together into God’s glorious, unstoppable plan for us.

And so when we pray for healing, we should have an attitude of submission to God’s purposes. His purposes are good, he is sovereign over all, and he is in control of ALL things that happen to us. This rock-solid reality allows to have deep trust in God and a hearts full of submission to God.

A Prayer For Healing

Father, I thank you that you are so good to me. Nothing comes to me that does not first pass through you. Everything you ordain is good and right. Every circumstance that comes my way is from your loving hand.

I ask that you would please bring healing to [INSERT PERSON]. Mend their broken body. Heal the sickness that has overtaken them. Deliver them from the pain and illness that racks their body right now.

I praise you that you are my GOOD Father. Because you are good, I pray to you confidently and with faith. I fully BELIEVE that you can heal, and I also believe that you DELIGHT to heal. You take no pleasure in sickness. You take no delight in the afflictions of your children. So I ask that you would bring healing.

Ultimately, I trust in you. Whatever you do is good. Whether you choose to heal or not, I will still praise you and delight in you. Nothing will shake my confidence in you. I submit wholly to your will and I lay my own will at your feet. I know that you are working all things for good. All circumstances are being woven together for good. This gives me a great sense of peace.

I ask all these things in the precious name of your Son, Jesus. The one who died in my place, rose again, and is now seated on the throne. He alone is my confidence. I do not trust in my own righteousness, but only the righteousness you’ve given.

Amen.

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