Sometimes I Don't Like Praying for People to be Healed

Here's Why:

I just want to say "Be healed in the name of Jesus" and be done with it. Plain and simple. But that doesn't seem to be proper prayer etiquette. People expect longer prayers (maybe more than they expect to be healed?). So longer prayers are given. Some like to pray over the details of the ailment, using medical terms to define their specificity. Some like to take to control over the evil spirits causing the ailment. The more charismatically inclined will pray in tongues. Some will just be silent, seeking direction from the Holy Spirit.

I can't say any of that is bad. In fact, I've prayed for people that way and saw them healed. Honestly, I like those longer prayers when I'm the one receiving those prayers. However, I'd rather be healed with a short prayer rather than not healed with a long prayer.

Sometimes I'll be praying for someone and they will assume I'm praying silently, but really, I'm just standing there, thinking to myself, "How much longer should I stand here before they feel I've prayed for them long enough?" Why can't my prayers to heal be like the quality meat I buy at the supermarket - 100% Beef, No Fillers.

It wasn't always this way. Before I learned how I was "supposed" to pray, I kept my prayers short. I had read in the Bible how Peter and Paul prayed for the sick. Their prayers seemed rather to the point. True, I'm no Peter or Paul but it seemed like the way to go when praying for healing. When I was at Trinity International University, I walked into the Student Center to find one of my friends. She told me her head hurt. I asked her if she wanted me to pray for her to be healed. "Seriously?", she responded. I was serious. I asked her where it hurt, put my hand there and said "Be healed in the name of Jesus". "Does it feel any better?" I asked. "Actually, I think it does a little bit". "Cool", I said, and was on my way. Later, I would become immersed in the charismatic movement and would receive training in healing. Suddenly my simple prayers seemed insufficient.

I would occasionally balk at the idea of longer prayers. One time a couple asked me to pray for their sick daughter. "Look", I said, "I'm just going to say 'Be healed in the name of Jesus' and be done with it". "We don't care." they replied, "Just pray for her." I set the 3 year old girl on my lap and put my hand on her back. She seemed uninterested and was engrossed in a program on the TV. "Be healed in the name of Jesus", I said. She gasped and then whipped her head around to look at me as if I had just shocked her with a cattle prod. Her reaction even startled me a bit. We saw no improvement in her that night, but the next day she awoke, completely healed. Was she healed naturally while she slept? Maybe. But I can't deny that "something" happened when I prayed those simple words over her.

So my prayer policy is to just pray "Be healed in the name of Jesus", and I'll pray it 3 times if you're not healed before then. If you're not healed by the third time, come see me again in a week and I'll do the same thing. But that's an ideal and I hardly ever adhere to it. Instead, I find myself "silently praying" for people, while in the back of my mind I'm thinking: Be healed in the name of Jesus....Next!