Come now, let us look together at your prayer. You have cried out to God with fervor, and this is good, for the soul remembers its Maker in the time of affliction. When sickness lays its hand upon the body, it softens the hard heart and drives away the clouds of worldly pleasure, leaving the judging faculty clear. But consider this: you have commanded the sickness and disease to depart in your own authority, as if you were the healer rather than the one seeking healing. Where is the humility that becomes a suppliant? The leper who cried, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean," did not declare himself clean before the word was spoken, nor did he command the disease as though it owed him obedience. He offered his plea and awaited the good pleasure of the Master. Even our Lord, when His soul was troubled at the approach of death, did not grasp at deliverance but said, "Father, save Me from this hour, yet for this purpose I came to this hour." If He who is the very Physician of our souls and bodies spoke thus, how much more ought we to approach the throne with reverence and holy fear.
Do not suppose that every sickness is unto death, nor that healing must come at the very moment we demand it. When Lazarus lay ill and his sisters sent word to Jesus, He answered that the sickness was not unto death, and yet Lazarus died. The sisters were not offended when the event seemed contrary to His word. They trusted Him who holds life and death. So also must you trust. Your body of death, mortal, subject to decay, held down by corruption, may indeed be visited by fever and pain. Yet these afflictions, however bitter, are not without profit. An hour of affliction makes a man forget much pleasure. The soul that in health grew slack toward God often returns to Him in the furnace of sickness. Do not, then, treat this illness as an enemy to be shouted down, but as a chisel in the hand of the Great Physician, cutting away what is diseased in the spirit even as He deals with the flesh.
Give glory to God in your sickness as well as in health. The thankful man remembers the Lord continually, not only when the fever passes but while it burns. Present your body as a living sacrifice, and if He heals you today, rise and give Him praise. If He permits the trial to continue, give Him praise still. For we know that the well-doings of our salvation belong alike to the Father and the Son, and Christ is able to make us invincible for the future, not by removing every thorn from the flesh, but by teaching us to say with the apostle, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" and answering, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Pray then with boldness yet with submission, not commanding as though you held the sword of the Spirit by right of conquest, but asking as a beloved child who trusts the Father's wisdom above his own. The Lord who made the body knit together as one with its members, who appointed the head to govern and the rest to serve, knows how to restore what is broken and to quicken what is weak. Commit yourself to Him who judges righteously.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
be-an-encourager.blogspot.com
