The Apostle Paul's account of the "thorn in the flesh" he suffered after having the opportunity to see heaven, shows us that not all prayers for physical healing offered in faith receive physical healing.  If we only had the Gospels as our guide, we would think that people ALWAYS get healed when Jesus is present, or at least involved.  (Actually, the Gospels tell us Jesus could do no miracles in His hometown because of the people's lack of faith, but that one time aside, Jesus ALWAYS heals everyone who comes to Him for healing.) 

The Apostle Paul makes it clear that he PLEADED for the Lord to heal him, but no healing came.  He didn't give up after the first prayer either. He pleaded three times, but each time the answer was, "No."  Finally, the Lord told Paul His grace was sufficient for him, that His strength was shown in Paul's weakness.  The end result for Paul was the ability to DELIGHT in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties.  (See 2 Corinthians 12:7-10)  That amazes me.  I've come to the point where I can handle it when God doesn't answer my prayers for healing for me or others, but I don't DELIGHT in those situations--yet.

Maturity in the faith comes to all of us as we rely on the Holy Spirit and live intentionally in the ways of God's word in the power of the Spirit.  Part of that maturity is thanking God both when we receive what we ask Him to give us, and when He gives us something different than what we ask.  We need to ask in faith, and we must understand that sometimes we don't get what we pray for because we lack faith or have wrong motives as the book of James reminds us, not because God is telling us, "No."  The sign of maturity is when we know when we are the cause of the lack of response, and when the "lack of response" is simply God's way of increasing His grace in our lives.  Those lessons are hard to accept, to learn and especially to live.  They also help us to remember that while there is a God, we are not He!

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, Thank You for always hearing and responding to our prayers offered in faith.  Give us grace to accept Your answers when they aren't what we want.  Fill us with Your Holy Spirit that our faith may increase, and we may live in your grace and power.  This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.