What this tells us is that God has chosen to suspend healing mercy, making it dependent on the repentance of his people.
Unrepentant sin is a well-known and commonly pointed to reason why prayers, especially healing prayers, aren’t answered. Some use this as a way to bludgeon those they feel more righteous than. And some, while well-meaning, have added guilt to an already guilt or shame-laden conscience and have put an answered prayer for healing further out of reach. At the same time, we can’t just assume that unrepentant sin ISNT the reason why a prayer doesn’t get answered. But I don’t think it’s right to ASSUME that is the reason right out of the gate. It has on occasion turned out that while in prayer (especially in a group context that I have or others have stumbled upon previously unknown or unrecognized sin that I believe the Spirit CHOOSES TO REVEAL AT THAT TIME.
