Imagine you are with a group of people, and I ask you to turn toward one another and share prayer requests. If you were with 10 friends of yours and everyone could share one request, what would it be? What do you and your crew most often pray about?
If your experience matches mine, the most common item on prayer lists relate to people’s physical health. Pray for Bob, he is having surgery on Tuesday. Pray for Sally, she struggles with chronic pain. Pray for Beth, she is having complications during pregnancy. Pray for Jim as he awaits the results of the blood test and CT scan.
Sure, we would also hear prayer requests for financial matters, directional decisions, broken relationships, sin that easily entangles, or evangelistic concerns … but I would guess that at least 75% of the prayer requests would be health related, and that would be true no matter WHO I am circling up to pray with. Illness related requests are at the top of the list when I pray with pastors, elders, AND congregants … when I pray with neighbors AND family members.
Have you ever stopped to ask the question, “why?” Why is it that so many of our prayer requests deal with physical health?
Well, we live in a fallen world and sickness is prevalent around us. We are just AWARE of many needs in the physical arena. Add to that, disease sometimes runs its course to death, so the “sickness situation” is both prevalent and serious.
That explains WHY SICKNESS IS ON OUR MINDS, but why do we frequently bring these requests to Jesus? Why would we think He can do something about our illnesses? Why would we assume that He cares?
This Sunday at Wildwood Community Church we will be in part 3 of our “Launch Day” sermon series as we look at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. This Sunday we will be in Luke 4:38-44 as we see that FROM THE VERY BEGINNING we are not unique in bringing our sick before the Lord. As we look at these verses we will see how Jesus responds to the sick around Him in the first century, and what that means for you and me today.
Hope you are able to join us Sunday in our 8:30, 9:45, or 11:00 service. See you there … and bring friends!