Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

• Psalm 37:3-4

One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

• John 5:5-6

“God invites us to ask plainly for what we need. We will not be scolded any more than a child who climbs into her parent’s lap and presents a Christmas wish list. Dr. Vernon Grounds says that when he hears of someone in need of healing, he prays like this: ‘God, I know you have your own purposes and undoubtedly have a plan for this person, but I’ll tell you straight out what I would like to see happen.’
“If diagnosed with a serious illness, I would ask directly for physical healing. We are commanded to pray for healing, Jesus decisively demonstrated God’s desire for human health and wholeness, and dozens of studies have borne out the effectiveness of prayer in the healing process. Faith works. It aligns body, mind, and spirit, and galvanizes the healing processes built into our bodies.
“Sometimes Jesus asked a person, ‘Do you want to be healed?’ That was no idle question: as doctors testify, some patients can hardly imagine an identity apart from their unwell condition. In prayers for healing, as in all prayers of request, we should honestly present the problem and tell God our heart’s desire.”

• Philip Yancey, Prayer

My wife passed away roughly a year ago.  Near the end, the answer to the question, similar to what Jesus asked in John 5, was quite similar to the answer that the man gave Jesus.  I had called the EMTs.  They broke through a window to reach her, since she collapsed against the door.  They rushed her to the hospital without a stitch of clothes on and without her “hair.”  She told the nurse that since I had gone to all that much trouble, she might need to stick around a little longer.

I was hurt, but she passed away six days later.

When the water in the Bethesda pool near the Sheep Gate was stirred, the first person into the pool would be healed.  The man never said he wanted to be healed.  He said that he had no one to lift him at the right time and place him in the pool.

Sometimes, the person who is hurting sees the place where there is no more pain, no more suffering, no more sin, and no more death.  At that point, their heart’s desire is to be with Jesus.

For someone who intercedes for others, our desire is that they become healed, but sometimes that might not be what the one that is suffering wants.

Then again, God grants us what we need, and often I have found that I can live without a lot of what I want.  I usually interpret Psalm 37:4 as “Once your heart’s desire is the Lord, God will give you your heart’s desire – more of Jesus.”  And no matter how you slice it, that is probably better than what you were asking for anyway.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.