Prayer to heal sickness

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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Don’t post with ALL CAPS, and try to use proper spelling and grammar.

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

Recent prayer requests…

Tap below to see prayers from other visitors to this site.

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Are you facing a difficult disease, illness or malady and want to cry out to God for healing but don’t know what to pray? If you feel scared, alone, unsure of the future, or don’t understand how healing works, pray these words below in faith today! Below are four prayers for healing, an interview with Max Lucado explaining how we should pray for healing, and some of our favorite Bible verses on healing.

God tells us that through prayer, He can speak to us and use us to work miracles for His glory. When you use this prayer for healing you are coming to God completely surrendered and expectant to let His Holy Spirit work in and through you. I pray that you will find miraculous healing as you seek God’s plan for your life – His plan to prosper you and to give you a hope and future!

Here are 10 Prayers for Healing you can use today to speak life and hope into your situation.

1. A Prayer for Personal Healing

God, you know me so well. You created me. You know the number of hairs on my head, and you even know the thoughts conceived in my heart before I ever vocalize them. You’ve told us to come to you and ask for every need of life. You are Jehovah-Rapha, the God who heals, and you have the final word on my destiny, the number of years I’ll live and serve you on earth.

I’m coming to you today as your child, longing to hear from you and asking for your divine healing. There’s so much I don’t understand about life. But I do know that with one touch, one word, you can make me whole. Please forgive me of my sins, cleanse me of my unrighteousness, and begin your healing from the inside out.

I don’t always know what your will is Lord, especially in times like now, when I desperately seek your face. I offer you no promises, no bargains, no deals to exchange for my health. I simply bow my heart before you to tell you the desire of my heart: that I want to spend as many years as I can loving you here, loving others, and wanting to become more like you. However you choose to accomplish that is up to you—and okay with me. If you use doctors to provide healing, give them wisdom to know what to do. Regardless of how you accomplish it, the healing you give is always miraculous. And you deserve all the praise.

I absolutely believe you have the power to heal. You demonstrated that on earth, and you still heal in miraculous ways today. Even when my faith is weak, you say it is enough, and my love for you is strong. And I know you already hold my heart and life in your hands. It’s up to you. If I can bring you more glory through healing, then that’s what I ask for. That’s what I desire.

But if your answer is no, or not now, I know that your grace is sufficient for me. Ultimately, I want your will to be my will. I look forward to spending an eternity with you. But Lord, if you have planned still more for me to do here on this earth, I not only need and want your physical healing, Lord, but a thorough, deep-down cleansing and strengthening—a whole-hearted renewal of all that I am. Because all that I am is yours. Use this trial to strengthen me from a “what-if” faith to a “no-matter-what” faith. And no matter what, I choose to honor you and give you glory. In Jesus’s name, Amen. ~ Rebecca Barlow Jordan

2. A Short Prayer for Healing for Friends

Lord, your Word speaks promises of healing and restoration and I thank you for the miracles you still perform today. Today I claim those promises over my friend. I believe in the healing power of faith and prayer and I ask you to begin your mighty work in the life of my friend. Please reach down and surround my friend with supernatural peace and strength and give her the faith to believe that all things are possible for you. Protect her from Satan’s lies and discouragement and let her miraculous healing begin. Amen.

3. A Prayer for Healing and Grace

Dear God,
We confess our need for you today. We need your healing and your grace. We need hope restored. We need to be reminded that you work on behalf of those you love, constantly, powerfully, completely. Forgive us for trying to fix our situations all on our own. Forgive us for running all different directions and spinning our wheels to find help, when true help and healing must be found first in You. Forgive us for forgetting how much we need you, above everyone and everything else. We come to you and bring you the places we are hurting. You see where no one else is able to fully see or understand. You know the pain we’ve carried. The burdens. The cares. You know where we need to be set free. We ask for your healing and grace to cover every broken place. Every wound. Every heartache. Thank you that you are Able to do far more than we could ever imagine. Thank you for your Mighty Power that acts on behalf of your children. We reach out to you, and know that you are restoring and redeeming every place of difficulty, every battle, for your greater glory. Thank you that you will never waste our pain and suffering. We love you. We need you today.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen ~ Debbie McDaniel

4. A Prayer for Healing Sick Family and Friends

Lord Jesus, thank you that you love . I know that you hate what their illness is doing to them/me. I ask that you would heal this disease, that you would have compassion and bring healing from all sickness.

Your word says in Psalm 107:19-20 that when we call out to you the Eternal one you will give the order, heal and rescue us from certain death. In the Bible, I have read of miraculous healing and I believe that you still heal the same way today. I believe that there is no illness you cannot heal after all the bible tells of you raising people from the dead so I ask for your healing in this situation.

I also know from my experience of life on earth that not everyone is healed. If that happens here than keep my heart soft towards you, help me to understand your plan and help me to be excited about heaven.

God, I thank you that belongs to you and that you are in control of everything that happens from our first breath to our last sigh. Amen. ~ Wendy van Eyck

5. A Prayer to Heal the Hurt

Father, help me get my focus back on you. I know I need to stop dwelling on my hurts and frustrations. Help me be faithful in prayer and put my hope in you. May the Holy Spirit guide and comfort and strengthen me. In Jesus’ name, Amen. ~ Living Free Every Day Devotional

6. A Prayer for Forgiveness 

Dear God, I’m sorry for my sin. I ______________ (what you did), which was a sin against you, as well as a sin against __________ (who you hurt). Please help me turn from this behavior. I will begin ________________  (how you’ll change) instead of what I have done. Please forgive me and help me to grow in my relationship to you and _________, whom I’ve hurt. Thank you for your love and mercy. Thank you for forgiving me and choosing to forget my sin. In Jesus’ name, Amen. ~ Sue Schlesman

7. A Prayer for Those Who Feel Wounded

Dear God, We feel wounded, betrayed, and brokenhearted. We wonder sometimes if we can ever fully recover from the deep hurt we feel inside. Thank you that you know what we’ve been through and the struggles we still carry. Help us to forgive. Help us to let go. We know that we can move forward with you in peace and freedom. We pray for those who have hurt us right now, and ask for your power to work mightily within their lives. We leave them in your hands and find our comfort and strength in your spirit.

Thank you that you understand all that we’ve faced, that you see and you care. We ask that when the enemy taunts us with lies and tries to bring up the hurt of the past, you would silence his voice and allow us to walk free. We bring you all the stuff that he would use to try to trap us or stop us – the pain, the past, the mistakes, the struggles. And we lay it at your feet, again. Thank you for your healing, for your grace, for your hope. Thank you that you have set us free and will not waste the pain that we’ve carried. We look forward to the greater good and purpose you will bring through this struggle.

We love you Lord, we need you, we trust you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. ~ Debbie McDaniel

8. A Prayer to Heal a Struggling Relationship

Dear God, I struggle in my relationship with ______. I need You to give me wisdom on how to love ____ well. You are my shield and defender. Show me how, when and where to erect boundaries in our relationship. I believe You are my healer and I trust You to guard my heart and mind. I need Your specific directions on how to interact with ______.

I want to love _____ with a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:5) I forgive ______ for hurting me and forgive me for ______. Help me to love ______ courageously. Fill me with Your truth and compel me to fearlessly tell the truth with love. Let Your perfect love cast out all of my fears related to our relationship. I surrender what I think our relationship should be. Please transform it so that it honors You. In Jesus, I pray. Amen ~ Jennifer O. White

9. A Prayer for When Time Doesn’t Heal a Broken Heart

Lord, please heal my broken heart. Fill me with the peace and joy I know can only come from You during this hard time. Walk closely beside me during my journey to healing and recovery that I know is possible through Your power alone. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. ~ Tracie Miles

10. A Prayer to Heal from Depression

Lord, it seems as if my world has collapsed, hurling me into a deep, dark pit. I come to you in complete surrender. I am desperate for you, helpless and afraid. Please lift me out of this pit and show me the way, Lord.   In Jesus’ name, Amen ~ Mary Southerland

How to Pray for Healing – Max Lucado

Healing Bible Verses

Proverbs 4:20-22
My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely 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 a man’s whole body.

Psalm 107:19-20
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. 

Jeremiah 17:14
Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. 

Mark 5:34
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 

More Healing Scripture

What are you praying for healing over today? Join our large praying community in the comments below and experience the power, hope and healing that comes when you allow others to cover you in prayer.

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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Of all the kinds of healing, physical healing is perhaps the hardest for us to really believe in; it is far easier to believe that prayer can lead to repentance or can change a person psychologically.

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Yet real physical healings take place regularly in the prayer groups I know. Often, a dozen or more occur at conferences when we take the time to pray for the sick.

So if you have the faith that the Lord still heals people as he did two thousand years ago, launch out and learn to pray for the sick. For, although physical healing may stretch your faith (have you ever prayed for a blind person?), it is also the simplest kind of prayer.

The Confidence to Launch Out. To pray for the first time requires courage. I used to feel very foolish, as if I were pretending to be someone special when I knew I was just an ordinary person. Who was I to pretend to be a great healer, to act like Christ? All this was, of course, merely false humility since, as we know, Christ himself instructed his followers to pray for the sick. Sometimes healing requires more courage than faith.

What a joy when we find that God really answers our prayers and heals the people we love! The praise of God spontaneously rises from our hearts. If you have confidence that Jesus might use your prayers to heal the sick, then there are just a few simple steps to learn. They are easy enough to remember; we do not need a graduate degree to learn to pray for physical healing.

I have missionary friends who are teaching the poor people of the barrios of Latin America to pray for the sick, and they report that about eighty percent of these unlettered people are healed or notably improved. There is no one method or technique that always produces results; God wants us to depend on him—not upon a technique. But there are some simple steps that flow out of the very nature of prayer for healing, and these I want to share with you.

Listening. The first step is always to listen in order to find out what to pray for. Just as the first step for a doctor when he meets a patient is to find out what to treat, so we need to find out what we are meant to pray for. A doctor is looking for a right diagnosis. In prayer for healing, we are looking for the right discernment.

We are really listening to two things: to the person who asks for prayer and tells us what seems to be wrong; and to God, who from time to time shares with us the true diagnosis whenever the person isn’t sure what is wrong.

When we listen in this way, the Spirit comes to enlighten us when we are in the dark about what to pray for. To some people this special knowledge seems to come in a very special way in the form of definite mental images or verbal impressions. To many of us, however, the knowledge of what to pray for comes in a very natural way, more like a simple intuition.

We may not be sure whether we are inspired by God or not; we learn by experience to sift out our intuitions and to find what works out in practice. Often, after I have followed what seemed to me a simple intuition about what to pray for, the person I was praying for has told me that I touched on those very things he had not directly mentioned but had hoped that I would pray for. When these intuitions work out time after time, you learn to trust that God is working through them.

In addition to listening to the person, we should also be alert to the promptings of the Spirit who may enlighten us, especially when we don’t know what to pray for. It is not healthy for us to be unduly problem-oriented and symptom-centered. In the abundance of Christ’s health and life, sickness will be overcome, in the brilliance of that light, darkness and ignorance will be dispersed.

Laying on of Hands. In actual praying for the sick, the laying on of hands is a traditional Christian practice: “They will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover” (Mark 16:18). Certainly it is not essential; if you feel that the person you are praying for would be embarrassed or would feel more comfortable if you stay at a distance, then by all means be sensitive to his feelings. But if it does seem right, there are several advantages that explain the New Testament practice of the laying on of hands.

In the first place, there does seem to be a warm current of healing power that often flows from the minister of healing to the sick person. Precisely what happens when we feel this current we are not sure, but it seems like a transfer of life-giving power. Jesus himself experienced this flow of power in such a way that he could sense it:

Now there was a woman suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, whom no one had been able to cure. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak; and the hemorrhage stopped at that instant. Jesus said, “Who touched me?” when they all denied that they had, Peter and his companions said, “Master, it is the crowds round you, pushing.” But Jesus said, “Somebody touched me. I felt that power had gone out from me.” (Luke 8:43-46)

Often we experience this same transfer of power, occasionally like a gentle electric current, but more often like a flow of warmth. Whatever it is, it is often connected with healing. It almost seems like a transfer of life.

Some with the gift of healing talk about “soaking prayer” in which you just soak the person in a prayer of God’s love. In thirty years of praying for the sick, we have discovered that this soaking prayer where we spend time with a person and pray with the laying on of hands helps immeasurably. It’s like God’s radiation treatment: The longer the sickness is held in the force-field of God’s love, the more it shrinks, until it finally disappears.

The Actual Prayer. In praying for the sick person, we can be spontaneous and improvise prayer for healing. We can assume any posture that is most comfortable for us—sitting, kneeling, or standing—where we can best forget ourselves and relax and concentrate on the presence of God. We turn our hearts and minds to the Father, or to Jesus; we know that it is only through their love that anything will happen. After welcoming their presence and praising God, we then turn to the petition itself.

Most ministers of healing suggest that we be specific in our prayer, that we visualize as clearly as possible what we are asking God to heal. For instance, if we are praying for the healing of a broken bone we can ask the Father (or Jesus) to take away every infection, to stimulate the growth of the cells needed to restore the bone, and to fill in any breaks. Such a specific request seems to enliven our own faith, as we see in our imagination what we are praying for. It also stimulates the faith of the sick person as he listens and pictures in his own mind what we are asking God to accomplish in reality. This helps him become more actively involved in the prayer, even if he says nothing.

On the other hand, some of us—that includes me—are by temperament not very good at imagining things; it is much easier to leave the imagination out and just ask God—but in a very specific way—to heal the person.

With Confidence and Thanksgiving. For a long time, there has been a kind of tradition which led most of us to end all our prayers with the phrase, “if it be your will.” The idea behind it, of course, is that we don’t know God’s will, so we don’t have the confidence that everything we ask for will be given us. This is true. Yet, this addition—”if it be your will”—can weaken our prayer if it really means “I don’t believe anything is going to happen.” This is a far cry from the words of Jesus, “Everything you ask and pray for, believe that you have it already, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).

If we believe that God answers our prayers always (not always as we think he will, but nevertheless always), we naturally will have a heartfelt desire to thank him. We can thank him even during the prayer: “I thank you, Lord, that even now you are sending you healing love and power into Bill and are answering our prayer.” Our attitude should be that of St. Paul: “There is no need to worry but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving” (Philippians 4:6).

Francis MacNutt is cofounder of Christian Healing Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida. To read an excerpt from his latest book, The Practice of Healing Prayer (The Word Among Us Press), or for more information, visit our bookstore at wau.org.

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