Health & Healing
Towards the end of last year a couple of folk, quite independently, asked me about holding a ‘healing service’ – it’s a subject that I think is most important and, indeed, was given a prominent place in my licensing service back in May 2010:
There was this reading from James 5:
Let us hear the words of St James:
“Are there any among you sick?
They should call for the elders of the Church
and have them pray over them
anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.”
Presenting a jug of oil, the parishioner continues:
Receive this oil for the healing of the sick,
All: and as a true pastor bring comfort, reconciliation and wholeness in Christ.
The passage in James goes on to say
The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.
And perhaps that gives a little inkling as to why this clear and straightforward scriptural command is so often sidelined - because we know from experience it isn't straightforward – you don’t just slot your prayer into the machine and always receive the answer you want.
One help to understanding this is that the outcome of this prayer and anointing is described as “The prayer of faith will save the sick” which of course includes healing but also is far wider. Uncomfortable though it may be, there is sometimes something more important that God wants to achieve within us than immediate physical relief. That is not to say that God is indifferent to it but that He sees the whole perspective.
However I firmly believe that as we obey God in this, in seeking prayer, so God always begins to work something in our lives that is for our good, our blessing, our salvation and our ultimate healing.
As ever I’d be grateful for comments and responses as to how we might go about this in a formal way but also to make it quite clear that I am always very ready to come and offer informal prayer and, indeed, always delight in being asked to pray...
With my very best wishes in Christ
David Wilson
The Rectory, 7 Cedar Fields, West Coker, 9DB, Tel. 862328
E-mail: thevicar@fastmail.co.uk
Website: www.7churches.org.uk
The Churchwardens may also be contacted by email: Daphne Creed and Brian Dodd