Recently I received painful news. The wife and mother in a family I love was diagnosed with a serious form of cancer, and the outlook was grim.

Night and day, these people—the husband and wife and two teenage boys—were on my mind and in my prayers. It was my privilege to participate with other praying people in a service of anointing in their home.

Soon they let their friends know they'd found a rallying point in God's Word—2 Corinthians 1:8–11. I looked it up. To my surprise, I found a powerful teaching on pain and prayer, one I had never studied.

In the verses leading up to this section, Paul describes God as "the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort". A treasure in words! Paul says the Father understands our suffering because his own Son suffered. From the Son, suffering flows into our lives—and with it flows the comfort of the Father.

This is a blessing not only in private, but in community. Paul says there's a wider purpose attached to the comfort we receive—we are then able to extend comfort to others when they go through pain.

Comfort is not a pool that accumulates, but a river that flows. It flows from the Father, through the Son, on to us as believers, and then through us to others who are hurting. This flowing is a koinonos (Greek)—a sharing, a fellowship, a partaking, a companionship that unites Heaven and Earth in God's healing power.

The Holy Spirit is everywhere in this flowing. It's no coincidence that flowing water is one of the primary symbols of the Spirit, and that the New Testament word for "comfort" is also a name for the Spirit—"the Comforter".

As I received updates from my friends—the family impacted by cancer—I found myself strangely encouraged. I was supposed to be comforting them, but they were blessing me. This is the fellowship of consolation.

Paul's writings on suffering are not intellectual; they are personal. "We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death."

Can you can identify with this description? Look at it again. Do the words reflect an experience in your life? If the description is for you, the comfort is also for you.

It's important to know that Paul deals honestly with troubles. He sinks under pressure. He cannot endure it. He despairs. He feels as though he's on death row. He is not "happy all the time", to use the misguided phrase of a children's song. There is a glib faith that denies suffering's reality and depth—but this is no faith at all. Our Saviour himself knew desperation, especially in Gethsemane and on the Cross.

But like our Saviour, Paul steps out from despair to claim the promise of God. He expresses pain, but he also expresses faith. "This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us . . . and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope."

Now to the role of prayer. Frequently, I come across sincere people who question how our human prayers can have an effect on God's sovereign universe. Do our services of prayer and anointing affect outcomes? This is an intellectual and rational question, and a reasonable one. But the issue is essentially spiritual. The critical question for me is, Am I willing to let God speak for himself? Will I submit my query to his answer?

Paul is unequivocal. Heaven's specific blessing does not come out of the blue. Rather, it arrives "as you help us by your prayers". Think about this! Healing accompanies praying. "Then," Paul concludes, "many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favour granted us in answer to the prayers of many."

This scripture gives good reason to pray collectively for our friends. United prayer actively places their deliverance and destiny in Heaven's hands. The outcomes are then entirely safe with God.

Our praying is not subject to question, nor is it optional. It is crucial. It is divine invitation—part of the plan, part of the fellowship, part of the healing, part of the joy, part of the faith. So, let's pray.

Postscript. Two years after the date this article was written, the desperately ill wife and mother is doing remarkably well under God's specific and clear blessing.

This article first appeared in modified form in Mid-America Outlook, August 2007. Copyright © 2009 by Ed Gallagher (South Pacific edition). / Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission.