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Prayer Ministry
Should We Pray About Aging?
by Francis MacNutt (from the March/April 2006 issue)
Just last week, I read that Oral Roberts is 88 years old, and his beloved wife Evelyn died last year. Again, it brings up a question we faced in an earlier newsletter: Are we supposed to fight against the aging process? The amazing thing to me is that although I've read many books on healing and heard many talks, no one, to my knowledge, has addressed the universal problem: we all grow older. Are we supposed to "go gently into the night?" Now that I'm facing it myself (at the age of 80), I need to ask this question. This question is daily reinforced by looking at our dog, Chewy, who is a big malamute and often falls over just trying to get up off the floor.
Since some of you are getting up in years, and all of you know someone who is struggling with the problems of age, I'll try here to share some thoughts about how to pray for the aging process.
In the first place, aging does no mean you have to be sick. I keep praising God that I am relatively healthy: my eyesight and hearing are still excellent. And yet, the effects of aging are inmany ways like being sick: You may limp, and you may hurt.
Twenty years ago I was still able to sign up for 10K races (6.2 miles), but now I slowly walk along those same paths - and my knees now hurt from the pounding they once took. The joints have worn down in a natural process. (It's like Judith's faithful 1994 Toyota Camry, which she traded in last week. Over the years, it served us well, but now the motor and upholstery show the effects of wear.)
Since aging is touching me personally, I've been reading a little about it. Once thing we all realize is that our bodies peak physically when we are about 25, then slowly start to decline - a process which hastens sharply toward the end. Studies show that our immune system loses its strength, enervated by the diseases our bodies fight off throughout our lives, and becomes weakened in its ability to keep us strong and healthy. A health report from Harvard tells us that 215,000 people in the U.S. die every year of sepsis, a bacterial infection, and that in 2001, 62,000 died of flu or pneumonia. As the body ages, it loses its ability to fight off disease, and the elderly more often than the young fall prey to cancer.
It's as if God, our creator, fills us with an initial burst of life which enables us to grow from a microscopic joing of two cells to an incredibly complex organism of over a trillion cells, then some of that life-giving force gradually starts fading away.
As Ecclesiastes writes:
Remember your creator while you are still young,
before the bad days come...
before the sun and the light grow dim...
when strong men are bent double...
when going uphill is an ordeal
and you are frightened at every step you take...
...the dust returns to the earth from which it came,
And the Spirit returns to God who gave it.
(Eccles. 1:2a,3b,5,7)
Good News
You will be glad to hear - if you haven't already - that being a "spiritual person" is, generally speaking, a great boost to your health. Our friend, Dale Matthews, M.D., who directed the study we did on praying for patients with rheumatoid arthritis1 has written The Faith Factor2, which lists a number of studies that show how being a person of faith improves one's health. For example, the Strawbridge Study, which followed 6,928 persons, found that people who frequently attended religious services had mortality rates 36% lower than those who rarely attended services.3
Harold Koenig, M.D., has conducted more than 25 research studies at Duke University Medical Center which explore the positive relationship between spirituality, prayer and health.4 Altogether, more than 500 studies have documented the positive relationship between spirituality and health. Nine out of ten Americans believe in the power of prayer, and a remarkable three in ten report instances of a profound physical, emotional or spiritual healing.5
But Still There is a Remedy
As Ecclesiastes wryly notes:
"There is a season for everything...
A time for giving birth,
A time for dying..." -Eccles.1-2a
In spite of the inevitability of death, I believe that, ideally, our hearts should just stop when the time comes, and that we need not fall prey to sickness. I would like to think we could leave this world and our friends in full possession of our mind and our senses. We know this doesn't always happen, but I believe we can still pray for the healing of any sickness that is attacking our immune system - such as pneumonia or cancer. Humanly speaking, our natural defenses slow down as we grow older, but that, it seems to me, is even more reason - not less - to pray for God's strength and life to enter our bodies and minds. As I see it, all the studies show that there is continual struggle going on between the forces of life and death in every aspect of our being. Every day, more and more of our being is wearing out.
Every day, then, we need prayer to counter the forces of dissolution and death. "Give us this day our daily bread." It isn't just one prayer for healing every six months. It's asking for the life of Jesus to fill us continually. And, of course, such practices as receiving the Lord's Supper continually build up and renew this life. There is a need to pray continually and never lose heart (see Luke 18).
The Great News
We all know what the great news is: that when our time comes to die, what seems like death is just an entrance into a newer and greater life:
After this perishable nature has put on imperishability and this mortal nature has put on immortality, then will the words of Scripture come true:
"Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?"....Thank God, then, for giving us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 15:54-56)
Footnotes:
1"Effects of Intercessory Prayer on Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis," Southern Medical Journal, Vol. 93, No. 12, Dec. 2000, pgs. 1177-1186.
2New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
3Ibid., p. 158.
4Chester L. Tolson, Ph.D., and Harold G. Koenig, M.D., The Healing Power of Prayer (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2003), p. 19.
5Ibid., p. 13.
