Let us start with two observations. In our evangelical prayer meetings today, prayer for sick people is normal and indeed often dominates such gatherings. Requests for prayer from other Christians typically include something about sickness. Derek Thomas quipped that our prayer meetings are ‘organ recitals’, and others have called them ‘sick lists’.
It is also well established that life expectancy was much lower in previous eras, including Bible times, than today. Relatedly, sickness was much more common and effective treatments almost non-existent. To live healthily, free of aches, free of pain, without fever or shortness of breath, and free of other medical symptoms was rare.
Now if we put these two observations together, then we would expect the New Testament, indeed the whole Bible, to be chock-full of prayers for the sick wouldn’t we? Yet clearly this is not the case. In fact, prayers for the sick are exceedingly rare. How many can you think of? In James 5 we have one involving a combination of medical treatment and prayer.
If we aim to pray according to Scripture, our prayer priorities need to change, don’t they? We have only limited time to pray, and so what is emphasised in the Bible needs to dominate our prayers.
