hey everyone! xD

mm had a great cell discussion yest xD
we started out talking about wrong perceptions/past experiences/doubts and disbeliefs. i think the idea was to talk about things that make us lose faith. not really sure why we were asking about those things... haha. but yea... then we went round the table talking about ourselves... mm so we mentioned some stuffs, like when people die, we blame God... then like when we dont get what we want etc. then it got to someone who talked about like how when u pray for someone to get healed, and they get healed, it helps to boost your faith.

i cant really remember about how we went in that direction, but somehow we started discussing about prayer and why we pray. specifically praying for the sick. it was really interesting. mm like somehow there was one part when we started talking about why people get sick in the first place. like sin and sickness. so there were like 2 schools of thought that came up. well not everyone was involved, but the discussion was quite open i guess. mm so there were two approaches to sin and sickness. well to generalise, it was kinda 2 approaches toward sin and punishment for sin. so the first one was that God punishes sin. so like sin leads to death. God determines the way we die, but we die eventually, cos we're sinners. erm we were talking about praying for the sick... so mm he was talking about praying for the person to die and remove the person from the suffering. (this last part doesnt really make sense to me, but anyway...)
the second one focuses more on Gods treatment of sin after the death of Jesus Christ. so it is more about how our sin has been forgiven and doesnt really affect our daily life anymore. in the sense that it is not so much 'punished' anymore. like sickness isnt a 'punishment' for sin.
mm so basically it was 2 ways of looking at sin, before and after Christ died.
but the main thing that was raised was why do we pray? if we know that God ultimately is in control over our lives and whatever happens in the end is still up to God, why do we still pray if we cant really change anything?
but i think for me, praying is a way of bringing God into the picture. when things are going bad, when we feel terrible, it may seem like its all about me myself and i. but when we pray, we bring God into the picture. we remind ourselves that God is in control. we are more able to take a step back to look at things. it is no longer just me, myself and i, but it becomes me and God. it reminds us that God is sovereign. it helps us to find rest, to find peace, to stop struggling. to find strength. and thats why we should pray. thats why we should pray for the sick. by praying, we can let go of the sickness. we are more able to cope with the situation, no matter how it turns out.
i guess by saying this, im also saying that sickness is no punishment. we should not see it that way. rather, sickness is like another trial we encounter in life.

i think my cell leader raised a good point when she said that often when we are faced with someone who is sick, whether it ends in healing or in death, God is glorified.

haha the discussion was so intense, my cell leader went to call for the youth pastor to come in... xD
he helped to answer the question better i guess.
when we pray for someone who is sick, it ends in three ways. one, the person is healed. two, the person is healed only after a longgggg time. three, the person is not healed, and dies.
when we pray, and the person is healed, our faith is often strengthened. but what if the person dies.
hm my pastor quoted this scripture, where it say 'to live is christ, but to die is gain.' so death, in itself, is not really a bad thing. when a believer dies, it is a gain, because they are going to heaven! they gain from it! but of course, this raises the question, what if the person is an unbeliever?
cant really rmb exactly what my pastor said about that... but i think it was something about everyone all being together. meh cant rmb. i only remember him drawing a big circle, then two smaller circles inside, representing believers and unbelievers. cant quite remember what it meant... >< but yea... =/

eh so he also talked about our concept of healing. the way we see healing is different from the way God sees healing. oh yea i think thats also why he quoted that verse, about death being gain. so yea... kinda like saying just because a person dies, doesnt mean the person wasnt healed. =)

so yea. we should always pray for people. oh man now i kinda wish i was paying more attention. cos i can explain it to myself, but now typing it out, doesnt seem so convincing lol. aiyah anyway, i think the main idea is that we should always pray. it does make a difference. not only for the person being prayed for, but also for the person praying. yea... xD

lalalalala. long post hehe.
;D