Praying For Folks On Their Death Bed...

[Edward429451]

Now whenever our moms & dads, grandmas & grandpas get old and it seems like most people begin having health problems and usually have repeated trips to the hospital. It's a common occurrence. When a loved one is in the hospital, it is a natural thing to visit them and to pray for them and their healing or recovery. Who wants to lose someone they love? No one. And when the illness is terminal it's common for some to have a crowd of family & friends around the bedside praying for them.
God hears those Prayers and collects those tears.

Even though Paul taught us that to die is to gain, and to be absent from your body means to be present with the Lord, people still do not celebrate that they are on their death bed and inches away from the Lord. And we routinely pull them back with prayer. I was pondering, is this a right thing? Why pray to keep them here on evil earth when they could be with the Lord?! In a way, it doesn't make sense to pray to keep them here...and why do people grieve, when their heart should be joyous that our loved one is finally with the Lord? Then I thought about my own mom & dad, and I prayed all the same prayers that everyone else does and I did grieve when they passed on to the other side.

As I was pondering these things, it occurred to me what about God? How does He feel in these times of the clock running out for people? He loves them and may be excited that they are coming home to Him again! And then He hears a dozen family members & friends praying that their loved one don't die, and He sees their tears nd feels their grief and He loves all of them too, so He decides to answer their prayers and give the stricken person more time with their earthly family. ...but I wonder how God reallys feels at these moments. Just when He was about to receive them, everyone wants him to stay and are crying and stuff, so Answer their prayer, let the man stay on earth...I wonder if God feels disappointment at these times?

In the same way as we feel grief because our loved loved ones are near death (But not really if you think about it, they are near Life!) Does God feel grief that, HIS loved one is delayed and not coming when He expected them to?!

We have to face it, Prayer moves God at times. There are examples in scripture about people praying and getting granted more time on earth, or God spared Ninevah (or 100 years) because they repented and prayed, Lord we repent, and are sorry! Do not destroy us! And so God did not! The way I figure it, is God might feel terrible at the moment He grants your loved one more time because you prayed and asked for that. Now His receiving the person is delayed, and He was so excited and had things for them and was going to show many things to them and all sorts of stuff. And we jerk them back to earth with prayer.

That makes me feel like, boy if I am down for the count don't pray for me to stay! I'm coming back swinging if you do! (Lol).

What do you think?

 

[Edward429451]

8 views and not one response. Interesting.

The Lord has some bad days ahead. He loves us all, right? He died for all? And one day He is going to have to say to many people, I never knew you. That's going to be a sad day for Jesus.

 

[Lamb]

In my previous church, when someone in the congregation passed away the announcement began with

"It has pleased the Lord to call ___ home."

I don't think everyone prays that a person who is dying shall live a bit longer. Sometimes we pray that they don't suffer before their passing. Sometimes we pray for selfish reasons....that God will let them live until a relative can come say goodbye.

 

[Frankj]

In my previous church, when someone in the congregation passed away the announcement began with

"It has pleased the Lord to call ___ home."

I don't think everyone prays that a person who is dying shall live a bit longer. Sometimes we pray that they don't suffer before their passing. Sometimes we pray for selfish reasons....that God will let them live until a relative can come say goodbye.

In the end, maybe the only true prayer should be that God's will be done in the manner he wishes it done, and that if we are a part of it we have the knowledge and power to play the role in it that he wants us to play?

 

[Lamb]

In the end, maybe the only true prayer should be that God's will be done in the manner he wishes it done, and that if we are a part of it we have the knowledge and power to play the role in it that he wants us to play?

That's how we're taught in the Lutheran church, that we hope that our prayers are in line with God's will, not ours.

 

[jswauto]

8 views and not one response. Interesting.

The Lord has some bad days ahead. He loves us all, right? He died for all? And one day He is going to have to say to many people, I never knew you. That's going to be a sad day for Jesus.

A Couple examples are available, 1 Kings 21:

25But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. 26And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

27And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. 28And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.

2 Kings 20:

1In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 3I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 6And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. 7And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

That's what the Lord did in those 2 situations when someone prayed not to die. Even evil Ahab.

 

[VeritatisVerba]

Now whenever our moms & dads, grandmas & grandpas get old and it seems like most people begin having health problems and usually have repeated trips to the hospital. It's a common occurrence. When a loved one is in the hospital, it is a natural thing to visit them and to pray for them and their healing or recovery. Who wants to lose someone they love? No one. And when the illness is terminal it's common for some to have a crowd of family & friends around the bedside praying for them.
God hears those Prayers and collects those tears.

Even though Paul taught us that to die is to gain, and to be absent from your body means to be present with the Lord, people still do not celebrate that they are on their death bed and inches away from the Lord. And we routinely pull them back with prayer. I was pondering, is this a right thing? Why pray to keep them here on evil earth when they could be with the Lord?! In a way, it doesn't make sense to pray to keep them here...and why do people grieve, when their heart should be joyous that our loved one is finally with the Lord? Then I thought about my own mom & dad, and I prayed all the same prayers that everyone else does and I did grieve when they passed on to the other side.

As I was pondering these things, it occurred to me what about God? How does He feel in these times of the clock running out for people? He loves them and may be excited that they are coming home to Him again! And then He hears a dozen family members & friends praying that their loved one don't die, and He sees their tears nd feels their grief and He loves all of them too, so He decides to answer their prayers and give the stricken person more time with their earthly family. ...but I wonder how God reallys feels at these moments. Just when He was about to receive them, everyone wants him to stay and are crying and stuff, so Answer their prayer, let the man stay on earth...I wonder if God feels disappointment at these times?

In the same way as we feel grief because our loved loved ones are near death (But not really if you think about it, they are near Life!) Does God feel grief that, HIS loved one is delayed and not coming when He expected them to?!

We have to face it, Prayer moves God at times. There are examples in scripture about people praying and getting granted more time on earth, or God spared Ninevah (or 100 years) because they repented and prayed, Lord we repent, and are sorry! Do not destroy us! And so God did not! The way I figure it, is God might feel terrible at the moment He grants your loved one more time because you prayed and asked for that. Now His receiving the person is delayed, and He was so excited and had things for them and was going to show many things to them and all sorts of stuff. And we jerk them back to earth with prayer.

That makes me feel like, boy if I am down for the count don't pray for me to stay! I'm coming back swinging if you do! (Lol).

What do you think?

I think God gets it.

I should say that I do not believe God grants such requests during this dispensation of Grace but granting, for the sake of discussion, that He does (He certainly has done so in the past), it seems to me that God grants such requests out of compassion. The delay of their arrival in Heaven is insignificant, especially for a God who thinks in terms of centuries, millennia and longer.

I'd also point out that, back when God was performing such miracles, the granting of extra time was rather risky. Hezekiah was a godly man, but his extended years which were granted in response to heartfelt prayer, led to spiritual consequences that suggest it would have been better for him to trust God's original timing and die in honor. During those last fifteen years, he became prideful, he foolishly showed Babylon his wealth which prompted the prophecy of Judah’s future exile and he fathered Manasseh, who became the most wicked king in Judah’s history. Some of that may have happened anyway but, if so, it wouldn't be on the shoulders of Hezekiah.

So the lesson there is, be careful what you ask for, you might just get it.

At any rate, as for God being disappointed about such prayers. That's possible but I sort of doubt that He's too disappointed about it, really. The more righteous a man is, the more loved he's likely to be by his friends and family and so it's to be expected that they'd not want him to leave. God gets that, don't you think?


By the way, I really love your relational perspective on how God thinks and acts! You might not have gotten a lot of response because those who think everything is predestined wouldn't understand how to respond to such observations. It would create all sorts of doctrinal conflicts and questions that they'd have no way to answer and so they intuitively avoid such discussions. That is, of course, assuming that they think such things through.

 

[jswauto]

Here's a little vision:

TEARS IN HEAVEN

At one point I was taken to a particular place where the angel stopped and said to me,
“God wants me to show you the room of tears."

Many times you may have read in several passages in the Psalms about our tears and
about how God cares for us. The angels catch our tears and put them in bottles (Psalm
56:8). Many times I had wondered about what this meant.

I know that many of you reading these words have cried many tears for your loved ones,
your children, your mate, or your family. Especially if you’ve gone through a separation
or a divorce, you have felt like all hope was gone. You have grieved over your lost loved
ones. I want to tell you that God showed me a room of tears. It was so beautiful. The angel took
me to a grand entranceway that had no door.

Looking inside, I could see that the room itself wasn’t large, but the holiness and power
radiating from it amazed me. Lined with crystal shelves, the inside walls glowed with
light.

On the shelves were many bottles, some of which were in clusters of three and looked
like clear glass. Under each sparkling cluster of glass-like bottles was a plaque with a
name on it. There were many of these bottles in the room.

Then inside the room I saw a man who appeared to have been glorified. His deep purple
robe was very beautiful and looked like velvet.
An elegant table, which was made of a rich-looking material and glowed with majestic
splendor, was just inside the door. The lavish display I saw astonished me!

Books were lying on the table, and they looked as if they were sewn in the most beautiful
silk-like material I have ever seen. Some had diamonds, pearls, and lace on them; others
had green and purple stones on them. All of them were intricately made.

I thought to myself, “Oh, God, how beautiful these books are!" I love books. These books
especially appealed to me. They were stunning. As I gazed about, I was overcome with
wonder.

At this point the man in the room said to me, “Come and see. I want to show you this
room, and I want to explain to you about tears. This is only one of many rooms like it. I
am in charge of this room."

As he talked, a large angel came through the entranceway. The beauty and majesty of this
heavenly being astounded me. I noticed that he wore a white, glistening garment with
gold-edged trim that went all the way down the front. He seemed to be about twelve feet
tall and had very large wings.

The angel held a small bowl in his hands. The golden bowl was filled (see Revelation
5:8) with a liquid. The man in the room told me, "He has just brought me a bowl of tears
from the earth. I want you to see what we do with this."
The angel handed him the bowl, along with a piece of paper. The note held the name of
the person whose tears were in the bowl.

The man in the room read the note and then went over to one of the places where the
bottles were kept. He read the plaque under the bottle, and I knew it matched the person
from earth who was named in the note.

The man picked up the bottle that was nearly full and brought it over to the bowl. He
poured the tears from the golden bowl into the bottle.
"I want to show you what we do here," the man said to me. "Tell the people on earth
about this." Then he took the bottle over to the table, picked up one of the books, opened
it, and said, "Look!"
The pages in the book were completely blank. The keeper of the room said to me, "These
are tears from the saints of God on earth as they cry to God. See what happens."
Then the man poured a drop from the bottle, one little teardrop, on the first page of the
book.
When he did, words began to appear immediately. Beautiful words, elegantly
handwritten, started appearing on the page. Each time a tear fell on a page, a whole page
of writing appeared. He continued doing this page after page, time and time again.
As he closed the book and spoke, he seemed to be saying to all humanity as well as to me,
"The most perfect prayers are those that are bathed in tears that come from the hearts and
souls of men and women on earth."

 

[jswauto]

TEARS IN HEAVEN (continued)

Then the angel with rainbow wings said to me, "Come and see the glory of God."

GOD OPENED THE BOOK

Immediately, we were transported to a huge place with thousands and thousands of
people and heavenly beings. Oh, it was beautiful!

In a little while the people seemed to fade away, and an even greater display of God’s
glory began to appear everywhere. The high praises of God became thunderous.
The angelic messenger took me to the throne of God.

I saw a huge cloud, a mist, and I saw an image of the Being in the cloud. I could not see
God’s face, but I saw the glory of God and a rainbow over the throne. I heard the voice of
God, and it sounded to me just as John de scribed it: "I heard a voice from heaven, like
the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder" (Revelation 14:2). In this
mighty arena, I saw many horses with riders beside the throne.

Suddenly, I saw a book lying on the huge altar in front of God’s throne. I saw angels
bowing before Him. Standing in awe, I watched this scene, and I saw what looked like a
man’s hand come out of the cloud and open up the book.
Somehow I knew it was the hand of God that opened the book.

Amazed, I saw what looked like smoke ascending from the book. Suddenly, the most
beautiful perfume I ever smelled filled the whole area where I stood. The angel told me
that this book contains the prayers of the saints and that God was sending His angels to
earth to answer the prayers from the cries of their hearts. Every body was praising and
magnifying God.

As God opened up the book, pages began to come out of the volume and fly into the
hands of the angels on the horses. I could hear His voice, "like the voice of loud thunder,"
shouting and saying, "Go, answer her prayers! Go, answer his prayers!"

You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book?
When I cry out to You,
Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me. In God (I will praise His word), In the LORD (I will praise His word), ‘ In God I have put my trust;
I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?Psalm 56:8—11)