Question
Dear Gramps,
I have great faith in our Heavenly Father and pray often but I was just wondering, if I were to ask the Lord to make someone well who is sick but that sick person was a non believer, would God still answer my prayer?
Shelley
Answer
Shelley,
It is wonderful that you have great faith in Heavenly Father and in the power of prayer. I’m sure this has been a great comfort to you on more than one occasion as it has been for me.
My answer to you is it depends.
It simply depends on what the Lord’s will is for that person. Perhaps a long struggle with illness will humble that person and bring them to God. Or perhaps the Lord desires for them to be healed to meet His purposes in some other manner. We can trust that He knows which is the right choice because He knows each of us, and He knows the beginning from the end.
Perhaps, with your faith in Heavenly Father and in prayer you are ready to take the next step, and begin striving to align your will with Heavenly Father’s in prayer. President Henry B. Eyring explains it this way:
“You can pray to know His will, and with the honest desire to do whatever He asks you to do, you will receive an answer.” You Are Not Alone in the Work
President. George Albert Smith also spoke of this. He said:
Let us so live that every night when we kneel to pray and every morning when we bow before the Lord in thanksgiving, there will be in us the power to open the heavens so that God will hear and answer our prayers that we will know that we are approved of Him.
If we live near to our Heavenly Father, we will be inspired to know what to pray for. Chapter 9: Open Your Soul to the Lord in Prayer
Keep up the good work, Shelley.
Gramps
