Pray for the sick

Are you suffering from a winter cold or possibly chronic pain for years, maybe even a life-threatening illness? Do you find it difficult to pray when you’re not well, or maybe you feel like you’re praying the same words over and over again? When we feel helpless we often cling to control as a life raft, but Christ tells us to cling to him during times of illness and every other time imaginable. We can pray for the sick and rest knowing God can restore health! He has the power to heal us, and he has the power to comfort us and give us new hope. He gives us rest when we are weary and peace when we are uncertain. If you find it hard to pray during difficult times you are not alone; pray along with this prayer for the sick!

Prayer for the Sick

Jesus, you control all the parts of my body, and you know when they’re not working at their best. Sickness leaves me stressed and steals time from all the things I want to be doing. I’m honest, Lord. I don’t like to be sick. But times like this also make me rest in you, so I thank you for this chance simply to wait on you.

I come to you today asking for your touch, Lord. Help me to be patient and allow you to do your work. If doctors are involved, give them wisdom, and thank you for providing the help I need, however you choose to provide. Whether this is a test, or simply a time to trust, I want my response to honor you.

As my Good Shepherd, I know you will lead me beside quiet places and restore my soul and body. I trust you and want to follow your leading. Help me to welcome this time not as an interruption in my carefully planned schedule, but as an opportunity to draw strength and nourishment for the journey ahead. You are my healer and my Great Physician. I look to you and give thanks for the promises in your Word that assure me of your presence and your help.

Teach me what you want me to learn during these unpleasant times, Lord. Help me not to take out my discomfort on those around me, and show me how to be a good patient while I’m recovering. In these days of sickness, Lord, I’m trusting you and asking you to make me well. And when you’ve restored my health, give me wisdom so I can treat my body as the temple of your Spirit. I’m eager to get back on my feet serving you, but I realize that even in sickness, I can still draw near to you.

Thank you, Jesus!

Crosswalk.com: How should I pray to God for healing? – Max Lucado from crosswalkquestions on GodTube.

Bible Verses for Healing

Proverbs 4:20-22 – “My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.”

Psalm 103:2-4 – “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,”

Psalm 41:2-3 – “The LORD protects and preserves them— they are counted among the blessed in the land— he does not give them over to the desire of their foes. The LORD sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.”

James 6:16 – “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

More Healing Bible Verses at BibleStudyTools.com

What sickness or weakness are you praying for healing for today? Join our large praying community in the comments below and experience God’s love, power, and healing!

Rebecca Barlow Jordan is an inspirational author, speaker, and passionate follower of Jesus who loves to encourage others heart to heart. She has written 11 books and over 1700 other articles, greeting cards, and other inspirational pieces. Her daily devotional Daily in Your Presence is available for delivery through Crosswalk.com. You can find out more about Rebecca at www.rebeccabarlowjordan.com.

This article is part of our larger Prayers resource meant to inspire and encourage your prayer life when you face uncertain times. Visit our most popular prayers if you are wondering how to pray or what to pray. Remember, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and God knows your heart even if you can’t find the words to pray.

Prayer for Healing

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Last updated: January 4, 2018

Prayers for healing can illustrate firsthand the incredible power of prayer. Through prayer for the sick and poor in health, we can find comfort in the most trying of times. Use these prayers, and keep them in your heart so they can remind you of God’s nearness.

The following prayers have been curated by pastors and clergy, while some come from rare, out-of-print prayer books.

God has been in the business of answering prayers for healing for a long time. Use these prayers as examples, and submit your own public prayer request at the bottom of this page.

Renew My Mind, Body and Soul

Lord, I come before you today in need of your healing hand.
In you all things are possible. Hold my heart within yours, and renew my mind, body, and soul.

I am lost, but I come to you with grace.

You gave us life, and you also give us the gift of
infinite joy. Give me the strength to move forward on the path you’ve laid out for me.
Guide me towards better health, and give me the wisdom to identify those you’ve placed
around me to help me get better.

In your name I pray, Amen.

To Heal a Friend

Think, o God, of our friend who is ill, whom we now commend to Your compassionate regard.

Comfort him upon his sickbed, and ease his suffering. We beg for deliverance, and submit
that no healing is too hard for the Lord, if it be His will.

We therefore pray that You bless our friend with Your loving care, renew his strength,
and heal what ails him in Your loving name.

Thank You, Lord.

A Prayer for Healing a Loved One

All our times are in Thy hand.
All diseases come at Thy call, and go at Thy bidding.
Thou redeemest our life from destruction, and crownest us with loving kindness and tender mercies.
We bless Thee, that Thou hast heard prayer, and commanded deliverances for our friend and
Thy servant, who has been under Thine afflicting hand.

He (or she) was brought low, but Thou hast helped him (her).
May he (she) not only live, but declare the works of the Lord!

As Thou hast delivered his eyes from tears, his feet from falling, and his soul from death,
may he daily inquire:What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me,and
resolve to offer unto Thee the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and to call upon the name of the Lord.

May we ever remember that recovery is only a reprieve and
that some day we will go to our rest in the Lord.
May we therefore secure the righteous path and live with eternity ever in our view.

A Prayer to Jesus for Healing

Dear Lord, You are the Just judge, Holy and True. You are the Most High God. You give us life.
You hold all power in your hands.

You are the Mighty one from God who carries the world, and is ruler over all the earth.
You Oh Most Blessed One are the giver of life. In you are only good things.
In you is mercy and love. In you is healing of the nations.
In you is freedom of worry and freedom of pain.

Lord Almighty, You loved us so much. You were sent from your Father,
sent to save us from destruction. We truly can never make it to Heaven without the help of Jesus the Son,
who was sent to earth to help us.

You, Lord are full of mercy and grace, please forgive us for our faults.
Lord Jesus, in you all healing is performed. You Lord are the miracle worker.
In your Spirit, your gift of healing is alive. In you Lord we can put our trust that you can heal us,
and protect us from the enemy, and death of our soul.

You, Lord are miracle worker for the sick, and for the lost souls.
You, Lord forgive us and save us from condemnation. You cleanse us and make us born again new.
You give us a clean heart full of peace. You Lord are the Light.

In You is all truth. Your way Lord is the way to Heavenly Hope.
Your hands Lord created the universe. You Lord are the True giver of Life.
Every child is a miracle of Life. Life rests in Your Hands.

Wrap us as a close knit family, draw us near to you Lord, and bind us with your Loving Hands.
Let us be drawn closer to You. You are the Vine, dear Lord and we are the branches.
You carry all knowledge and all power. You Lord are our medicine. Your Words Lord are Truth and Life.

Help us put our trust in You. You Lord are the greatest physician.
You heal, You protect, You care, You love, You are kind, You are patient,
You are thoughtful, You are strength. You Lord are our Creator.

You know our thoughts, our sighings and our cryings and every hair on our head.
You are Wonderful and make all good things for us. Heal us Lord, if it be Your will.

Amen

A Prayer Against Disease

Lord, Your scripture says that you heal all diseases and whoever believes in You will not perish but have an everlasting life. Strengthen me, Lord, in this time of illness. Sustain him as he lays sick in his bed. When You were on Earth, you did all things good and healed all kinds of sickness.

You healed those who had diseases. You died and rose for our sins and that we may have eternal life, Lord. I believe in my heart that You are here with us today and that with Your most holy power will remove all sicknesses and evils that roam the earth. Let it be done in Your glory, Lord.

We praise and glorify Your name, Amen.

My Lighthouse of Hope

Most gracious and loving Father, I want to thank You for all the blessings Youve given me, my family and friends and all those I hold dear.

Thank You Lord for giving me another day to see the beauty of your creations. You know the state of crisis that I am in now Lord. I want to be of use again to You, Lord. In the time of my hospitalization, You Lord remain as my rock and my anchor.

You stand as my lighthouse giving me hope. I pray Lord that you will heal me soon.

In Jesus name, Amen.

A Prayer for Doctor’s Wisdom

Dear Lord, Guide my doctor’s hands and give him wisdom.

Show him the way and help him to heal me.

I put my faith in you and the medical professionals that you have brought to me.

A Prayer to Ease Pain

Almighty Father, Thank you for your love, grace and mercy. I pray that my discomforts will turn to comforts, my pains to gains, my deprivation to more blessings, my losses to profits, my tear to smiles, my sorrows to pleasures, my illness to wellness, my debts to credits and my dreams to realities.

As the scripture said “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” And he “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

I trust in you Lord and in you alone to heal me with any form of skepticism towards blessing that you will be employed upon me. I trust, Lord, that this agony and suffering that is only in my head, will come to end and positivism will shine upon me as I read, hear, study and preach the truth in the Bible.

What does the Bible say about healing?

“Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.”

“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospelof the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.”

“And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spoke unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.”

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous man is effective and has great strength.”

Often times, it is good to look towards the scriptures for truth and understanding of this world. Click here to read more Bible verses about Healing or Life.

Prayer Request: Post Your Own “Prayers for Healing”

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If you’d like, you can post your prayer below so the PrayWithMe community can help pray with you.

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If you can, help pray for others and post comments of support.

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More prayers posted in: Healing

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Are there certain ways in which Christians ought to pray for the sick?  What can we learn from the Bible on how to pray for the sick to be healed?

Prayer is Commanded

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Jesus doesn’t suggest that we should pray but tells us to ask, seek, and knock.  Imagine a child looking for his or her mother in the house.  First the child asks his mother for something but doesn’t know where she is.  The child then asks but also must seek out where she is.  Then the child seeks and finds out that his or her mother is in her bedroom.  Then the child must knock on the door and only when the child has asked his or her mother, then seeks to find where she is but it is only when the child knocks that the door will “be opened to” them.  We must ask God for our needs but then we must seek God and seek Him first, seeking His perfectly good will.  Next, knock on heaven’s door through the Intercessor, Jesus Christ.  Only by asking, then seeking and next, knocking can God open the door to you and your requests.   We are commanded to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thes 5:17) and to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Phil 4:6).  Jesus asks “will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?  I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily” (Luke 18:7-8) and so we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.” (Luke 18:1). When we say that we’ll pray for someone and don’t, this is sin.  Samuel said “far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way” (1 Sam 12:23).

Pray for the Sick Commanded

James 5:13a “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.”

James asks if anyone among us is suffering, and this is always highly likely in the church, they are told to pray.  James also seems to tie in confession of sin to being healed as a condition.  He writes that we are to “confess sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed” (5:15-16).  If we have unconfessed sin, our fellowship with God is negatively affected even though our relationship remains.   Imagine that you are a parent and your child has just disobeyed you and they have not made it right with you; that is they have not confessed their disobedience and then they come up to you and ask you for something like some money or to go and buy some ice cream for them.  Would you be eager to do this or would you hesitate to do any special favors for the child?  Now, if that same child came up to you and apologized and asked for forgiveness, wouldn’t you be more willing to do something special for them?   I would think you would.  The fellowship was someone cut off with the child but never was their relationship.  They would still be and always will be that mother’s child but the mother would be hesitant do anything favorable for the child if they are living in disobedience so God may not answer our prayer for healing if we are not living in obedience and we have unconfessed sin.  If we ask for forgiveness, God promises to cleanse us and forgive us (1 John 1:9) so first confess all known sin and then pray to God for healing.  Why are our prayers more effective after confession?  Because we are cleansed and James says that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power.”  We can unleash God’s power for our or someone else’s healing but only if we are “righteous” or in a right relationship with God because Jesus said “whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” (Matt 21:22) but our prayer requests must always be in alignment with God’s will, not ours (Matt 6:10).

Pray for Healing

James 5:14-18 “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.  Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.  Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”

James asks the church and he asks us today, “Is anyone among you sick?  Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over” them.  Why does James request the elders to pray for the sick?  Perhaps because the elder, meaning the older, more experience Christian has a stronger faith.  They are commanded to seek the prayer of the elders in the church but not to the exclusion of other church members.  The “elder” is not specifically a church elder but may be a church leader which could be a pastor, deacon or an actual elder but this also might mean someone who knows how to pray and they should be praying for God’s will because God’s will is not that everyone will be healed.  Paul prayed three times to be healed and God said that “My grace is sufficient for you” and this is because God’s “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).  When we are weak, we are really strong because we are made to be dependent upon God and that is what He wants.  Jesus prayed three times to “have this cup pass from Me” yet God the Father’s answer was no because Jesus prayed, “Not my will but Yours be done” (Matt 26:36-39).  It’s important to understand that sometimes God says no just as He did to Paul and to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

James also ties in the fact that if a person “has committed sins, he will be forgiven.   Therefore pray for one another, that you may be healed.”  James compares the power of prayer to that of Elijah’s prayer.  Elijah prayed the prayer of faith and a prayer that was fervent, meaning it was passionate and full of meaning.  At his request, God stopped the heavens rains for three and a half years and then he only had to pray again “and heaven gave rain.”   Believing in God is to believe that He answers prayer.  To believe in Him means that we also trust in Him and this trust in His answer is always better than what we think or might expect and in His timing is frequently different from ours.  Never take the silence of God as God ignoring you.  Often God waits to answer our prayers for His perfect timing and in many ways His answers are better than what we had originally asked for.

Conclusion

If you are asking, seeking, and knocking, God will answer your prayer but it might not be in the way in which you expect; it will be better.  If you have unconfessed sins or we have something against someone that we haven’t forgiven like a friend or a spouse, first go to your brother, sister or even a spouse and make things right so that “your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Pet 3:7c).  Pray with faith, knowing it is God’s good pleasure to give to His own children the desires of their heart but only when we delight ourselves in Him (Psalm 37).  God has never promised to heal everyone in this life nor has He promised to answer every prayer to what we ask for.  God’s will is supremely higher than what we know because God’s will is always better for us than the will we have for our own lives.  Trust God, believe in Him, wait patiently on Him and He will answer your prayers.

Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon

www.patheos.com

I don’t know what your prayer list looks like, but if it’s anything like mine it’s full of people who need prayer for cancer, depression, heart troubles, lung issues, headaches, persistent coughs, fevers and the list goes on. Some name will rise to the top because of something urgent like a trip to the E.R. All the while I’m waiting to hear about the results from someone else’s MRI, blood test, X-ray or CT-scan.

I look at my list sometimes and feel a bit overwhelmed. How do I pray?

Having recently been in a situation where I was really sick and hospitalized for two weeks, I can honestly say I was grateful for every prayer uttered. I don’t doubt they led to my recovery. At times I felt a sort of buzzing in my head urging, “Get well, be well, be strong, you’re loved.” So if you’re praying for someone who’s sick, try these six guiding principles:

1)  Pray with hope.
No matter how bad the news, no matter how terminal the case, no matter what the doctors and tests say, bring hope to your prayers. That’s one of the best gifts you can offer a person, even someone who is terminally ill. When I was in the hospital, my biggest battle was the fight against despair. As long as I could hope, I could tolerate any treatment.

2)  Pray with love.
Pain and illness can be isolating. When you’re sick, your thoughts circulate around every ache in your body. But to feel loved and know you’re loved helps take you out of yourself. When I logged on to Facebook or email I was reminded again and again that people loved me, cared about me. And I didn’t even have to look that far: sitting by my hospital bed there would be my wife, my sons, my brother, my best friend.

3)  Share your prayers.
Send a note, a card, make a comment on Facebook, call, leave a message on voice mail, put your prayer in an email. There were times when I couldn’t focus on a message and there were many times when I didn’t have the energy to reply, but to see or hear a prayer was a balm to my spirit. Don’t expect a response to your messages. I feel like my best prayers are a mirror of God’s unconditional love–they come without strings attached.

4)  Be the stand-in for prayer.
When I’m sick I find it hard to pray for myself. I’m too ornery, distracted, worried, tired, foggy, gloomy. It makes me especially grateful to know others are praying for me. I can coast on their love and compassion, knowing that when I’m better, I’ll be able to pray for them.

5)  Pray with trust.
I think we all get that helpless feeling when a loved one suffers from cancer or Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s or a heart attack or a stroke. I’ve said, “I’ll be praying” to a loved one with the fear that it sounds weak and helpless. But powerlessness is part of the power of prayer. You’re putting your trust in the highest power of all.

6)  Give thanks.
I just heard from a friend whose father had to be released from hospice because he got too healthy. Or there’s another friend who wasn’t given a year–that was five years ago. And a friend who just got back her blood tests–she’s cancer-free. Hallelujah. I give thanks.

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