LIFE IS IN GOD'S HANDS

A nurse stood beside critically ill patients and watched many die despite fervent prayers and tears.

 “I can’t help but wonder about the effectiveness of prayer for healing,” he told me. “I do know a Christian dies differently and more comfortably than a sinner.”

 I’ve seen miracles, such as the healing of a childhood friend of leukemia and of a kid about 10 years old who had childhood diabetes. I saw people who appeared to have deaf ears opened, all sorts of pain disappear, and we’ve had numerous miracles in our own family.

 Two grand nephews born with holes in their hearts were normal before they went home from the hospital, and we believe God intervened. Our middle daughter was healed so that she didn’t need tubes in her ears although she was set for surgery. Our granddaughter, Melissa, was only a toddler when her parents were moving from Colorado to Oklahoma and got caught in a blizzard. When Melissa left, her chest was tight with croup and her two grandmothers went to their knees. When her parents arrived in Oklahoma, Melissa had no symptoms of croup.

 All of our four youngest grandchildren are miracles because God delivered them from complications during their mothers’ pregnancy. Our middle daughter had symptoms of multiple sclerosis, and after many tests was found to be perfectly normal. That was at least a decade ago and she has received her master’s degree in nursing since then and is doing fine.

 A MRI revealed our son-in-law had a brain aneurysm, but a CT scan showed it wasn’t there. Tests showed our oldest son had only 40 percent of kidney function. He went to a large hospital some distance away, and doctors there found he was perfectly healthy.

 All of these miracles occurred after our family engaged in fervent prayer. Yet, I admit, not all my prayers for healing have been answered. My mother died of a stroke at age 58, despite our prayerful petitions. Our oldest daughter died of cancer. I have several medical conditions. Is there an answer?

 One day I was thinking about the truth of the matter. I know God answers prayer and does heal, but I also know people die every day for whom someone was praying.

 Then, I also thought, people also die every day after surgery that brought back health for someone else, and others die taking medicine that helped others with a similar condition.

 There are no easy answers to the dilemmas that surround our mortality, but through studying scripture I’ve found God is in charge of all matters of life and death. “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after death the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Furthermore, we can be confident he loves us, and whether we live or die, if we know Him, we are the Lord’s (Romans 14:8).


 Ada Brownell is author of Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal, available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. Her blog: http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com ©Ada Brownell Feb. 9, 2012