These key basics struck me while reading about Healing Prayer: 
1) Praying for healing (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual) is a regular act of Christian life. Because miraculous healing is inherently sensational, Christians tend to either falsely elevate the gift of healing or shy away and undervalue it. But the truth is that Christ is a healer and Christ is in u, so nothing should keep us from sharing Christ's compassion with those in need. Though some have been given a greater share in the spiritual gift of healing, it is God who heals, and our confidence is to be placed in him and not in man.
2) God employs an infinite variety of means to bring health. God will use doctors, encouraging friends, medicines, psychological therapy, divine miracles, etc. to provide healing, and God has the ability to do this with or without prayer. It is spiritual pride (and dangerous) to reject medicine as a gesture of faith. But it is short-sighted (and equally dangerous) to turn to medicine exclusively and pray only when everything else has been exhausted. Both extremes deny gratitude to God for the truth that all things, including the efficacy of medicine, are gifts of God.
3) Healing by prayer is not magic nor formulaic. Prayer for the sick is an extension of the love of Christ; it is a compassionate plea to the Living God on behalf of one who is suffering. There is no right combination of words, right confession of sin, right shedding of tears, right amount of faith, that will “get the prayer heard” any better, because healing comes through God not through our ritual. I felt Foster's approach here was a bit too systematic, as he seemed to suggest that though the factors are labyrinth, there may be a way to perfectly pray for healing. I remain skeptical on that point.
Reading this chapter, my faith was challenged, but Foster writes: “We may have thousands of arguments and skepticism against this type of prayer, and only one argument for it. But that argument is God, and isn't he enough?”
The Experience
This week, I walked around just looking for an opportunity to lay hands on a person with illness or a boo-boo. Though I felt many times that I should pray for my own infirmities, I never had an opportunity to pray for another. Still, healing was frequently on my mind. The thought of prayer healing requires faith, so this prayer exercise became an exploration of faith for me.
Admittedly, I've been struggling with faith this year, specifically with the seeming frivolity of it. I held that belief is a state of being and cannot be willfully changed, so why should our relationship with the divine - even our eternal judgment - hinge on something so trivial...something we don't even have control over? But I am seeing more and more that faith is a purposeful act, a decision to abandon self-reliance and self-confidence. My opinion is shifting towards accepting that we are all able to believe, but not all of us are willing.
"I believe, help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24) is such a simple and effective cry for help,in fact the cry itself, acknowledging helplessness, is its own answer. Earlier this week I found that Isaiah 30:19-22 spoke directly to me about faith, help, and God's will to first and foremost heal our eyes and ears to see and hear.
