thank you for writing this. This is also something which I have been struggling with for quite a while. One thing I have noticed since I have been attending a different church is how they pray for healing. It has always been for me more like this: "please heal *name* if it is thy will. " and then it's a hold your breath and see what happens sort of thing for the most part. In this church they start out by praising God and thanking Him for the healing they know is about to occur in *name*- just different then I was used to, but good.
When my daughter was almost 2 I flew out to Arizona with her for my brother's wedding. We stayed at my parents house and my little girl became very sick. She had a bad cough and a really high fever and just didn't feel good at all. I didn't have the money to take her into a clinic so I did what I could with her. Gave her medicine to take down the fever and just held her while praying to God to guide me. She would get a little better and then worse as the night grew on. I was holding her and she was crying and really hot when I felt I should ask my dad to give her a blessing. I brushed the thought aside, it was late and I didn't want to wake him up. Soon she fell asleep and again I thought I should ask my dad to give her a blessing but then dismissed it because I didn't want to wake her up after finally getting her to sleep.
She woke up soon after and she was hotter then before. I took her temp and it was at 103 or 104 although I had giving her some medicine to bring it down, it was not coming down. I was terrified and didn't know what to do, again I felt I should ask my dad for a blessing for her and before I could brush it off again he knocked on the door and came in. He asked if he could give my daughter a blessing. It's a good thing he listens a lot better than I do! I gratefully said yes and he blessed her to be healed while I held her. I could feel her body cool as the fever left and by the time he was done with the short blessing, the fever was completely gone and she had gone back to sleep. She slept through the rest of the night and was completely healed!
Somehow it seems that I don't achieve those results when I am at home with my kids and I have the option of a doctor nearby, maybe it's that I didn't learn my lesson the first time and am still not paying attention to what God is trying to tell me- I brush off what I need to do for the healing because I am too timid to ask, or it's not what I expected or I'm just too full of "what if's" that I can't bring myself to do it. hmmmm....
just a little self reflection there..sorry.
Anyway, Thank you again for writing this book. It gives me a better focus for my search.
~Carrie