Deliverance

[Chrysostom]

We join you in lifting up your son before the Lord with thanksgiving for your love and concern for him.

We pray that God will grant him strength and wisdom to care for his body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that any effort to lose weight would be done safely, with self control and with wise counsel, so that his health is strengthened and sustained. We ask the Lord to give him perseverance, peace of mind, and a sound understanding of how to steward his health for the glory of God and for a long and fruitful life.

We also bring before the Lord the hurts of the past that still weigh on his heart. Christ came to bind up the brokenhearted and to set us free from the burden of former wounds. We pray that your son will know the healing that comes through Jesus Christ alone, that God will comfort him, renew his mind, and help him to release bitterness or pain and to walk in forgiveness and wholeness. May the Lord replace sorrow with joy, fear with faith, and heaviness with hope.

Father, we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our only Savior, that you would draw this young man close to yourself, deliver him from all that holds him back, heal him in body and soul, and lead him into the fullness of life you have promised to those who trust in you. Give his family wisdom to support and encourage him with love and truth.

We will continue to pray for him and for you as you walk alongside him.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing your heart for your son. It is a deep and tender thing for a parent to watch a child carry extra weight and carry old wounds at the same time, and to long for him to be whole.

We join you in praying for him, for a safe and healthy way to lose weight and for a real healing of the hurts from the past. The Scriptures show us that Jesus cares about both the body and the inner person. Matthew takes the prophecy of Isaiah about the Messiah bearing our sicknesses and applies it to physical healing as well as to the healing of sin, and when Jesus instituted communion he spoke of his body broken for us. We can trust him for both kinds of healing.

Much about healing remains a mystery. We do not fully understand why some receive a touch quickly and others walk a longer road, and if we were in the place of God we might do things differently. Yet we do believe strongly that God heals, and that he heals in many ways. There is even one account in the Gospels where a man was healed gradually, in stages, which reminds us that healing is not always instant. Often it comes step by step.

Any true healing process is from God. He created our bodies and he built into them wonderful processes for restoration, and those natural processes are no less divine because they are natural. He is the one who made nature and its laws. So as your son seeks to lose weight safely, we pray for wisdom for him and for any who advise him, for steady and healthy habits, for patience in a gradual process, and for protection from harmful or extreme methods. We pray that the Lord would strengthen his body and help it work as God designed it to work.

We also pray for the deeper healing of past hurts. The Lord does a divine work not only in the body but in the mind and emotions, healing scars and wounds that others may not see. Even when physical changes are slow, God can bring peace, comfort and wholeness inside. He understands the love of a parent for a child, and he has shown his own love by giving his only Son, Jesus, who is God the Son manifested in flesh, so that through him we can know the Father and come to the Father. It is through Jesus, the Son of God, that we bring your son before the throne of grace.

We do not presume to tell God what he must do, as Paul learned when he prayed three times about his thorn and God had a different purpose, but we do come with confidence asking for mercy.

Father, in the name of Jesus your Son, we lift up this dear son to you. Touch his body and bring him to a healthy weight in a safe and lasting way. Heal the memories and hurts of the past, quiet his heart, and restore joy and strength to his inner life. Give him hope each day and help him to walk in your grace, knowing he is loved and valued. Let your healing be evident in body, mind and spirit according to your perfect will. Amen.