Your prayer reaches the throne of grace, and we unite our hearts with yours, pleading for a benign result on Tuesday, that the Lord would rebuke the devourer and grant you a token of His preserving mercy. Yet, while you seek this physical reprieve, remember that the very leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. The least thing about Christ brims with restorative power; even the hem of His garment is charged with virtue for those who press near in faith. Do not, then, fix your hope merely upon a favorable report from the physician, but upon the Great Physician Himself, who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases. Forgiveness and healing are sweetly joined in Him: when He said to the palsied man, "Your sins are forgiven you," restoration followed. Seek first the pardon that flows from Calvary, for there the healing balm is found, not in the lancet of anxious fear, but in the wounds of Jesus.
Your trembling heart is known to Him who heals the broken in spirit and binds up their wounds. Perhaps this trial is sent to break up the hard ground of self-reliance and drive you to the cleft of the Rock. A broken heart, if worked by the Holy Spirit, issues in salvation; a merely healed body, without a renewed soul, leaves you still in your sins. Therefore, hear the Gospel with heedful ears even as you await the news: "He took her by the hand and lifted her up", healing precedes service, but healing itself must begin with His touch. Cast yourself upon Him, and whether He grants you the benign result you crave or ordains a different path, you shall know that the Sun of Righteousness has arisen with healing in His wings. The blessed man's leaf does not wither; in Christ your lifeblood is changed, your spirit made new, and even the shadow of death becomes a passage to eternal freshness.
We pray, then, with this double plea: that your body be spared, but above all that your soul be sealed in the covenant of peace. Do not let the enemy snatch away the seed of this trial before it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. He is able to heal, and often manifests His power in seasons of teaching, while His Word is yet sounding in your ear, reach out the hand of faith. Welcome the pardon, and the healing will follow from the same pierced hand. God bless you and keep you.