Prayers for healing in the Bible happened in the context of Christian community and biblical authority. They also happened in the context of honest confession and repentance:
“The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” James 5:15-16
This is not suggesting that all churches should have confessional booths in the foyer where members can come by and confess to clergy during the week: “Bless me brother for I have sinned.” This scripture is talking about the fact that we all have a problem with sin in our lives. Therefore, we need to make confession and repentance a habit.
If we knew that any unconfessed sins were about to be exposed publicly, most of us would like time to pray and examine our hearts and minds first. We would want to explore our memory carefully to be sure that there aren’t sins we’ve been ignoring or putting off dealing with until we have more time.
God repeatedly reminds us: “Don’t you understand? I love you. You don’t have anything more important to attend to than your relationship with me. As troubling as illness is, it’s not nearly as damaging to your health as the sin you tolerate. Get rid of the sin in your life.”
If I go for a physical exam and the doctor tells me, “I see something that needs to come out,” I don’t ignore or refuse his diagnosis. I’ve had nine surgeries and I absolutely hate waking up from anesthesia. I’ve had horrible bouts of nausea associated with anesthesia and surgery, but if I’m given a choice between having another surgery or having a tumor in my body, I’ll have the surgery and thank God for the surgeon.
Sin is far deadlier than any tumor. Sin will eat us up from the inside out. God loves us; this is why He says, “Don’t do that stuff.” Sometimes He allows us to get in a health crisis so that we become very interested in healing prayers. Often, it is when we are ill that God has our attention about the need to confess sin in our lives.
I have known people in critical situations who still would not confess. I have seen God take people home because they wouldn’t repent. They would not acknowledge that what they had done or were doing was wrong. God took them home. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that because they didn’t repent, they weren’t saved; I don’t know. I’m simply saying that they had a problem with sin, and they wouldn’t let go of the sin. I know that God sometimes takes people who are living holy lives home when they are young and lets wicked folks live to grow old. I don’t know why. I do know that God wants us to repent and be made right with Him. God wants to work in us for His glory and honor.
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