The Anointing

Last night we had an anointing service for our baby. We did this based on the biblical instruction given in James 5:13-16 which states “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

In preparing for this service, I did some research to gain a better understanding of the specific instructions for this ceremony. Here are the criteria that I found:

• Exercise faith in God’s promises
• Have purity of heart
• Be free from natural or spiritual sin
• Have a submissive spirit
• Make intercession
• Ask according to God’s glory
• The person who is sick should call for the Elders
• The elders should pray over them
• They should be anointed with oil, which is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.
• They should pray in the Name of the Lord.

Preparing for this service did require some effort on our part. We spent time in prayer seeking God’s guidance, confessing our sin and asking for His Spirit. We talked about what it meant to have faith and how our faith was a key factor in this healing process. We recognized that without faith God would do nothing, but that even with great faith, God in His wisdom may choose to answer our prayer in a way that we did not anticipate. Let me just say that I believe God will answer our prayer and He will do so with the affirmative. 1 John 5:14-15 states “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” It was never God’s will that our child or any other child in this world ever develop problems or be anything less than perfect. However, He has allowed these things because of sin and even though He has allowed them, He always has the power to overrule. Whether God chooses to overrule now or some time in the future, He will overrule that is His promise. God never says no to a request that is made according to His will. He either says “yes” or “wait” with the latter being more difficult for us humans to accept.

In thinking about the logistics for the anointing, we decided we wanted to do it on a Friday night at sundown as a way to bring in the Sabbath. We decided to have it at our home. We asked our pastor (Walt Groff) to perform the anointing and we invited the head elder (Sam Wallington) and his wife (Sharon) along with my parents (Dan and Mary) to take part in praying with us. Of course this leaves the obvious question of what happened to the kids? Sharon Cox graciously agreed to come over and entertain Nicole, Becca and Kyler while we had the anointing.

Walt began the service by reading the passage from James that is quoted above. Then we all gathered around Carey and placed our hands on her. We began our prayer time by confessing our faults and asking God to cleanse us from any sin. This is something we had already been doing in preparation for this, but we wanted to make sure there was nothing hindering our communion with God as sin cannot exist in His presence. Next we moved to praising God and claiming His promises. We recognized Him specifically as Creator and Healer. We acknowledged His power and His ability to bring restoration. We ended our prayer time by asking for complete and total healing of our baby. Not just enough so that medical intervention would be feasible, but complete healing so God could be glorified. We recognized that God already knows this child and has a purpose for Him. Jeremiah 1:5 states,”Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you…”. We prayed claiming Philippians 1:6 that God would finish the good work that He has already begun in this child. And we concluded by praying all of these things in the name of the Lord, who as Paul so eloquently states in Ephesians 3:20, is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. What an amazing promise that is!

God is able, no question about it and we are excited to see how our prayer is answered.

To end on a couple specific instances of God’s blessing we are thrilled the Amnio results came back with an all clear on everything they can diagnose. Of course the doctors won’t commit to there being no problems, but to us it is evidence of God’s hand. Secondly, we received Carey’s chromosome results and they were all clear as well, which tells us we do not have an elevated recurrence risk should we decide to have another child. Praise the Lord.