To Christians: If a loved-one gets cancer, would you pray for them?

Question

Unlike some other questions geared towards Christians, this question is asked with full respect...

Just a little disagreement I'm having with a friend. She says that Christians wouldn't pray because God has already decided if that person would die or not, so praying is pointless. I admittedly see her point, but I expect to get more yesses than nos. For bonus points, explain your answers!

Answer 1

Yes, I would pray that if it was the Lords will for them to get better that they would get well swiftly and learn whatever they needed to from the experience. And if it was not His will for them to live, that they pass peacefully without pain and that He would comfort those who loved them with the loss. In fact, I know someone that has been battling cancer for over 25 years, and so far he has managed to survive, who knows what God's will is, it is too much for anyone to understand. But I know that He does everything for a reason and I trust Him.

Answer 2

My dad has cancer--and you can be sure I pray for him. Of course I ask God to spare his life, but I know that may not happen. You know, dying is not the worst thing about cancer. If your loved one is saved then the loss is easier to bear. Not easy...just not unbearable. As for the prayers, I have seen God answer MANY prayers concerning dad--from small things like being "assigned" Christian nurses when he was hospitalized (not a small thing to be sure, but not a given either) to having the doctor tell you he is positive that the CT scan will show the cancer has 'exploded' all over and having to come back following the CT scan and tell you that it has barely grown at all. And this occured the day after he almost died. Prayer does change things. It isn't that God has already decided that the person will live or die, it's just that He knows what that outcome will be. He knows whether there will be prayer...or not. It's what makes the difference.

Answer 3

I would pray and have prayed.
Your friend speaks some truth... Although it may be a test. Just because a loved one has a cancer, they may not be the tested. Never doubt God.
We have a family now in church going through this. The believers father has cancer. The family is a bit resistant to prayer and God. We have prayed for peace on his body and to help th family have peace. The prayers, and of course this man being in the hospital, has brought this family together. They have reconciled, stopped their bickering and have even been praying.
So God has a plan, its sometimes not for who you would think would be obvious!
Pray!
God Bless!

Answer 4

I would & have & will continue to pray for anyone who I love that is ill, going thru a rough time, ect. Prayers are a way of asking God's blessings for that person. God does know the out come & the end result will not be changed. I feel like I am doing something for them when I pray. How do you comfort someone who has lost a child or spouce or parent? We can't, God can.

Answer 5

We can see the reality of prayer by looking at a simple example. Imagine that the rate of remission for some particularly nasty type of cancer is 5%. That means that if 20 people get this type of cancer, it is almost always fatal. Only one in twenty of the people who get the disease will survive. Knowing this, you can see what happens if we actually analyze prayer:

20 believers contract the disease
All of them have read James 5:15, so all of them pray.
19 of them die
The one who lives proclaims, "I prayed to the Lord and the Lord answered my prayers! My disease is cured! It is a miracle! I KNEW God would answer my prayers!"
You never hear about the 19 who died. No one ever writes about them in a magazine. "Person prays, then dies" is not a great headline. And since they are dead, you will never hear from any of these people.
Therefore, if you don't look at all the facts around the "answered prayer," and you only hear about the one out of twenty prayers that succeed, it appears that prayer is successful.
The fact is, believers who pray die from this disease at exactly the same rate as people who do not.

Answer 6

Of course I would pray for them. I have to repeat some to the things Ive said when this question came up before.

God wants us to pray. He tells us to. Why? Does God need to be told what to do? No.
What he seeks in our prayers is our compassion toward others and our faith in Him. In the case of a loved one God certainly knows how much we care so praying would be a matter of showing Him how we trust in Him in spite of such bad news. God will take care of those he loves even if nobody is praying for them. And yet there is a reason for doing it. To stay in touch with Him is for our own good. Communion with God brings peace to the soul. It reassures us that everything is in His loving hands and we need not fear. Prayer does as much good for the one praying as it does for the one being prayed for.

As far as Gods plan goes, it is part of His plan that people should pray. Then when he answers, that was all part of His plan too.

Answer 7

Yes I would pray.
We have free will. GOD also has a will for our lives. When we pray we can bring our will in line with GOD's will. GOD is able to heal cancer and may do it just because he is good. Everyone dies of something. Life is terminal and sexually transmitted. People with cancer just have a better insight as to when they will be leaving us. GOD knows how everything will turn out but we do not. If you follow the logic of your friend then we would never go to school because someone has already done it and knows how it will turn out. That is just silly.

Grace and peace to you.

Answer 8

I would pray for my friend. Absolutely!
God has certainly already decided what will happen to us and when.
But my prayers would be for comfort, and hope in Jesus, for courage, for peace, for the knowledge that God loves them.
We are all going to die. Some of us get cancer and are given a rough estimate of our time left. Some of us have accidents and die suddenly.
And yet, for Christians, the sovereignity of God is undeniable.
Prayers are never wasted.

Answer 9

I would like to know what kind of a christian your friend is.
God doesn't predestine people to die, prayer helps, if it cannot help the person with cancer it can help the person praying to be able to cope. Jesus said pray incessantly, there is even one account in scripture put there for us to read for that purpose, it is about a woman who continues to petition for help and eventually she is given help. the illustration is you may not always get help straight away but you will get it.

luke chapter 18:1 Then he went on to tell them an illustration with regard to the need for them always to pray and not to give up, 2 saying: “In a certain city there was a certain judge that had no fear of God and had no respect for man. 3 But there was a widow in that city and she kept going to him, saying, ‘See that I get justice from my adversary at law.’ 4 Well, for a while he was unwilling, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Although I do not fear God or respect a man, 5 at any rate, because of this widow’s continually making me trouble, I will see that she gets justice, so that she will not keep coming and pummeling me to a finish.’” 6 Then the Lord said: “HEAR what the judge, although unrighteous, said! 7 Certainly, then, shall not God cause justice to be done for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night, even though he is long-suffering toward them? 8 I tell YOU, He will cause justice to be done to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man arrives, will he really find the faith on the earth?”

Answer 10

Dear Friend,

Your friend is quite wrong. If this was the case, then why would Jesus heal the sick and raise the dead for newness of life.

I would certainly urge you to pray, consider the following:

Mark 11: 22"Have[f] faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."[g]

There is every reason to pray dear friend, trust in God and he will deliver.

God Bless