The The Bible encourages us to pray for people when they're sick. So what should we think

if their health is not Alistair Begg investigates the answer today on Truth for Life.

He's focusing our study in James Chapter 5, verse 15. And the

Lord will make the sick person well,

the Lord will raise him up.

If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

Now obviously the key phrase here is this prayer offered in faith or in some translation simply the prayer of faith.

And what makes this 15th verse so difficult

is that James clearly does not anticipate failure. It is a categorical statement and he makes

no qualification to it whatsoever. And despite the fact that the time interval between the prayer and the results of the prayer is not mentioned,

nevertheless, it still appears to be a categorical statement.

It doesn't say that it happens instantaneously,

it doesn't say that it happens after a week or two weeks,

or three months or five months it simply states that it will

happen and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. Now obviously

this demands immediate care and consideration.

There's no justification for believing that James assumed that the gift of healing was possessed by the elders in each local church.

Furthermore, it's not probable to assume that James envisages that everyone who is anointed and prayed for in this way will be

automatically healed. Now the reason we say that is because when we read the rest of the Bible, when we read the rest of the New Testament,

it is clear in the scriptures that God doesn't always will the healing of the believer.

We can go to a variety of passages, but probably the locus

Classicus is surely Paul himself in 2 Corinthians 12, when he asked the Lord three times for this

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