In The Art of Healing Prayer, Charles Ringma and Mary Dickau invite us to enter the realm of God’s curative love to aid those seeking the wholeness of Christ. Implicit in this invitation is the understanding that we have opened up our own lives to God’s healing grace. For this is a costly ministry, in which precious time and resources will be required of us as we pray biblically, imaginatively and sensitively for someone who may be on a very difficult journey to restoration.

Although often carried out behind the scenes of much of the Church’s activity, the healing ministry is one of joy and transformation. A person released from long-standing inner woundedness – from the prison of reaction, bitterness, self-pity, self-protection and fear – is one who can grow to inhabit new wide spaces of love and forgiveness. In turn, they may become a source of goodness and healing, as the ‘magic’ of God’s grace results in eddies of life-giving love for others.