The problem with public prayers for healing

Awhile back I wrote an open letter to Nabeel Qureshi that was probably the only negative (or constructive) feedback he's gotten since he went very public regarding his health. I tweeted the post to him, and he read it. Later I took it down.

This is what needs to be said...

When we ask God to heal us - in my humble opinion - it needs to be done privately. Think about this. When you do it publicly (especially as a public individual with a large audience) it is a kind of tempting of God. It puts God on the spot. And what if God does heal you? Then everybody else who is in a bad situation with injury or ill health will want the same thing. And so what if they don't get it? Is their faith less than the person who did get healed? See the problem with taking such a prayer/request public? See how it is a kind of tempting of God?

The main part of my criticism of Qureshi (who seems to be in his last days as I write this) was the sense he was giving that he is somehow special. A special case, as it were. I.e., God, heal me, or else these bad things will occur. The bad things being if Qureshi, a Muslim convert to Christianity, is seen to be struck down by disease then Muslims will see it as being a result of his leaving Islam, etc., etc.

There's suffering before glory. Young Christians have been struck down by disease while holding a Bible in their hands. He's not the first, he won't be the last.

I believe in miracles. I believe God heals miraculously (not as if suffering is something that should never happen to a believer, because suffering can sanctify) as answer to prayer. I believe I've been healed miraculously of various physical problems, and if I have every Christian has to some degree or another; yet I believe it has to be a private matter between the believer and God, otherwise it tempts God and creates other problems that are just of a practical nature, i.e. not everybody is going to have their prayer for healing answered...at least not in a dramatic, personally satisfying way that our limited minds think of as what an answer would be.

I do believe Nabeel Qureshi's prayers for his family will be answered, and he can be at peace regarding all that...