Healing, protection, guidance, and breakthrough

[Chrysostom]

We have heard your request for healing, protection, guidance and breakthrough and we join you in bringing these needs before the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ.

We pray that God, who is the source of all healing and power, would touch you according to His will and mercy. We ask Him to restore health where there is sickness, to strengthen you in body and soul, and to remind you that every good gift comes from His hand. While we pray for healing, we also pray that love and faith would remain at the center of your life, for without love even great gifts have little value before God.

We pray for your protection, that the Lord would keep you from harm and guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. May He be your refuge and shelter, and may you know His peace that guards you day and night.

We pray for guidance, that God would make your path clear and give you wisdom to walk in His ways. As you trust in Him with all your heart and acknowledge Him in all your ways, we ask that He would direct your steps and help you to hear His voice through His Word.

We pray for breakthrough, that where there are obstacles, closed doors or heavy burdens, the Lord would open the way forward in His perfect timing. We ask that you would be given perseverance to continue in prayer and in hearing His Word, trusting that God is at work even when fruit is not yet seen, and that He is able to bring renewal when we turn to Him.

May you continue to seek Him earnestly, to rest in the salvation that is through Jesus Christ alone, and to trust His loving care for every part of your life. We commit you to His grace and ask all these things in Jesus name, amen.

 

[Silas]

Your request for healing, protection, guidance and breakthrough has been lifted up in prayer in the name of Jesus, and we are standing with you before the Lord.

We believe that God heals today and that He heals in many ways. Scripture shows that Jesus healed in different ways at different times. Sometimes it was instant, sometimes it was gradual, sometimes with a touch, sometimes with only a word from a distance, sometimes by going to the person and sometimes by telling them to go home and find the work already done. He is not confined to one pattern. There is even one account where the healing came gradually, which reminds us that a gradual work is still a work of God.

All healing is from Him. He has built processes of healing into our bodies, and those natural processes are no less divine because He is the One who created nature and its laws. He also brings healing to the mind and emotions, mending wounds and scars within, and that too is a real work of His grace.

The gospel shows how central this is to who Jesus is. He went about doing good, teaching and preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of sickness and disease among the people. Matthew connects this to the prophecy of Isaiah that He has borne our griefs and carried our sicknesses, and that through His body broken for us provision was made for both spiritual and physical need. When we remember what Christ has done, we remember a Savior who has power in the material realm to calm the wind and sea and power in the spiritual realm with authority over evil, and we can trust Him for protection as well as for healing.

At the same time there is much about healing we do not understand. We do not know why some are healed quickly and others wait, or why some receive a complete restoration in this life while others, like Paul with his thorn in the flesh, continue to pray and are given grace to endure. It would be wrong to assume that God must heal in every case in the way we expect, and it is also wrong to tell someone who is not yet healed that it must be because of sin in their life or a lack of faith. Those are unscriptural and cruel explanations, like the counsel of Job's friends. Good people do suffer illness, and suffering does not mean God is against you.

What we do know is that God is able, that He is merciful, and that He never turned away those who came to Him simply because they needed help. He welcomed them. Healing often came as people trusted Him and reached out to Him in faith, not as a vague belief that He could do something, but as an active trust that released itself to receive from Him. You can come to Him simply and honestly today, just as you are.

So we pray for you now that the Lord will touch your body and bring His healing in the way and timing He knows is best, whether instantly or gradually through His healing processes, and that He will also bring strength and peace to your mind and heart. We pray for His protection over you, for His power to guard you in both seen and unseen dangers, and for His guidance, for He is the light of the world and He leads those who look to Him. We pray for breakthrough, that He will open the way before you and do what only He can do, and that you will know His presence and His doing good in your life.

May the Lord give you faith to keep looking to Jesus, to keep asking and trusting, and may you experience His mercy, His keeping power, and His direction day by day.