Healing, anxiety

[Jonathan_M]

Praying for this request in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Chrysostom]

Your request for healing and deliverance from anxiety has been heard, and we join you in giving thanks to God who hears our prayers and pours out His blessings.

We bring your body and your heart before the Lord, who is the true physician. As we have often taught, He does not only free us from outward infirmity but desires to establish us in thorough security and liberty within, delivering us from the anxiety that weighs down the soul. Disease and anxiety cannot finally overcome the life He gives, for His healing reaches both body and soul, and His peace is ever blooming and undefiled.

Let us pray together. Father God, we thank You for Your mercy and for hearing us when we call upon You in the name of Jesus Christ, our only Savior. We ask for Your healing hand upon this body according to Your will, and for deliverance from anxiety. Cast out fear and grant the peace that passes all understanding, that this heart may be guarded in Christ Jesus. Help us to hear Your word continually, to trust Your care, and to cast all our cares upon You, for You care for us. Strengthen faith, grant fortitude, and restore health as You see fit, that Your name may be glorified. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing this honest prayer and for beginning with thanksgiving. It is good to come to God with gratitude that He hears us, and to bring both the needs of the body and the heaviness of the mind to Him together.

Scripture shows that Jesus cares about physical healing. When Matthew describes the evening at Peter's house, many sick and afflicted people were brought to Jesus and He healed them, and Matthew says this fulfilled what Isaiah had spoken, surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sicknesses. The word there can be translated infirmities or sicknesses, and Matthew understands it to mean more than forgiveness of sin alone. It includes the body. That is part of why, when Jesus broke bread, He said this is My body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of Me. His suffering reaches to our whole person, spirit, emotions and body.

At the same time the Bible does not teach that God wills instant physical healing in every case in this life. Paul prayed three times for the Lord to remove what he called a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, and the answer was not removal but sustaining grace. We do not fully understand why some are healed quickly, some gradually, and some not in the way we ask. There is only one record of a gradual healing in the ministry of Jesus, yet we see that God has built healing processes into our bodies. What we sometimes call natural recovery is still divine, because God created those processes. Any true healing, whether sudden or step by step, whether of the body or of the inner wounds and anxieties, comes from Him.

The New Testament also teaches that gifts of healing are given as the Spirit wills, and not every member of the body has the same gift. The body has many members with different functions, and the question is asked to expect the answer no, do all have gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues. God still heals today and we should ask Him with faith, but we do not need a show or a frenzy to seek Him. We can simply come quietly and trust Him to work as He chooses, without exploitation or pretense.

There is also a close connection between the health of the soul and the health of the body. John wrote to Gaius that he wished above all that he might prosper and be in good health even as his soul prospers. That was a loving wish, not a blanket promise that everyone will always be well, but it points to a real correlation. The proverb says a merry heart does good like a medicine, and we now know how true that is. Anxiety, pressure in relationships, finances, and spiritual struggles can weigh on the body and create real physical effects.

That is why the psalmist's question is so helpful for anxiety. He asked his own soul, why are you cast down, why are you disquieted within me, and then he answered himself, hope in God. Anxiety often grows when we feel trapped and when God has slipped out of our view of the situation. The answer is to put Him back into the equation. When He is factored in, what seemed impossible looks different, because we remember His power and His presence with us.

So I join you in prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus we thank You that You hear prayer. We ask for Your healing touch on this body according to Your will, whether quickly or gradually, whether through Your direct touch or through the healing processes You have placed in the body and through the wisdom You give to those who provide care. We ask for deliverance from anxiety. Quiet the troubled heart, lift the sense of being trapped, and help hope to be placed fully in You. Heal also the emotions and the spirit, and give a merry and peaceful heart which is like good medicine. Grant daily strength, rest, and the assurance that You are near and that You will carry this life in Your love. Amen.