A situation:
I attended the funeral of a relative, L, who died of Cancer. A most revealing funeral service (they called it a funeral celebration).
L’s lengthy funeral service was well attended; many from the Glad Tidings Church (L. and her husband were members), with much hand lifting and “Praise the Lord” and “Amens” — seems to go with the Church. As usual the music was beautiful, even thought the lyrics were very emotional but often nonsensical — some of L’s grandchildren are very musical and they composed a lot of the music. Also there was much repetitive praying and emphasis on L’s being a great worshipper.
During the last year apparently L. and husband did missionary work in the Philippines and Hawaii — a number of converts were made. In other years also did missionary work (under the guise of teaching English) in South Korea and China. L’s Cancer was discovered in the late Spring of the year she died. According to one of the many speakers at the funeral (all very religious sounding) intensive prayer for L’s recovery began at that time, not only by the large Glad Tidings congregation of people but by congregations all over the world — Philippians, South Korea, Hawaii, China and elsewhere — a network of churches that communicate with each other.
According to the speaker many people were disappointed that L didn’t recover after all these prayers asking the Lord to heal her. The speaker then talked about God’s ways are beyond understanding and that His ways are not our ways, His ways are higher than ours, etc. etc. — that we must trust in Jesus.
From all the “Amens” and head shaking I concluded that most of the congregation agreed.
Then the spirit 🙂 lead me to certain verses in the Bible (promises) indicating the speaker was not totally Bible-driven
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Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
[comment: except relief from illnesses such as cancer, even if you are a 100% believer?]
Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Matthew 17:20 And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
[comment: except being healed from cancer?]
Matthew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 21:21 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, it shall be done.
Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
John 11:22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
John 14:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
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To me, the people at the funeral had faith — intense faith. They certainly did call on His name in the most earnest way, but they did not get for L what they asked. Their prayers were obviously not answered as promised in the Bible verses above.
As you might expect these verses were not mentioned during any part of the service.
Wouldn’t you know!
Another Situation:
Lost his wife, G, to cancer. G. was a literal believer in the Bible. She believed the Bible was inerrant.
G. was an upbeat, wonderful woman, compassionate, friendly, and warm. She followed her faith with deep, abiding devotion. Over the year her cancer spread from breast to bones, stomach and liver. Because of her suffering and her weakness she turned to prayer and the prayers of her friends and ministers in her Baptist Church. There was an anointing of oils. G. prayed to her God for relief from her pain and suffering, for possible healing, for a slightly longer life.
During the last few weeks she was bedridden and was at home because she wanted to die there. She became very weak and her husband spent all his time making her comfortable (pain killers helped, but she was allergic to morphine).
A Christian couple were talking to G.’s husband about prayer. They asked how G. felt about prayer in her last month of life. His answer was “Disappointment. A Big Disappointment!”
This happens very often when true believers find that their dependence on the Bible as an inerrant word of God is a big disappointment. This seems to happen when they are helpless and cannot truly voice their thoughts.
Remember:
Prayer is personal — you are praying to your own personal God that is part of your brain — not to some kind of Universal God
Naturalism and Religious Experience 