Sometimes you pray for physical healing and the healing doesn't come right away. Then it's tempting to feel discouraged. You might think, "This isn't working. I've been praying the best I know how for a long time. Maybe I just don't know how to pray effectively. Maybe I should give up and try something else." Sometimes when I hit a brick wall like this, I think back to a healing I had that's been especially encouraging to me. It was a time when persistent prayer caused a change in my thinking. And as soon as that change happened, my healing was immediate.
One afternoon, I suddenly felt very sick with a headache and nausea. I started to pray. I thought about the fact that God is my Shepherd, and that He loves me—that He holds me close to Himself, just as a shepherd does a little lamb. I thought about how He loves me all the time, and it certainly isn't His will for me, or anybody else, to be sick.
I kept praying with these and other ideas. But when it was bedtime, if anything, I felt worse. I had an important meeting to conduct. So I stayed up and continued praying.
