help

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer has been heard and we have lifted it up before the Lord with you. Thank you for sharing your need so honestly, and for clinging to Psalm 23 even in this long season of sickness and want.

We pray for you now that the Lord who is your Shepherd would restore your body, give you daily bread, and strengthen your faith when you feel weak. We ask Him to touch your sickness that has lingered for weeks, to provide nourishment and rest so you can recover, and to move the hearts of those in the institutions and insurance offices where help has been delayed for three months. We ask that what has been slow would be hastened, and that He would open other doors of provision near you in the meantime.

Do not think that your poverty or hunger means you are forsaken. Scripture reminds us to look at the generations of old and see, did anyone trust in the Lord and was forsaken, or hope in Him and was put to shame. Even the apostle Paul suffered hunger and thirst and had no rest, and our Lord Himself said the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. He was rich, yet for our sake He became poor, so that through His poverty we might become rich toward God. Your present suffering does not separate you from His love, and it does not mean He is distant.

You asked if you have done something to cause this situation. It is good to bring your heart before God in humility and ask Him to search you, to confess any sin He brings to mind, and to receive His forgiveness through Jesus Christ alone. Yet not every affliction is a punishment for a particular sin. Sometimes the Lord allows want and sickness to draw us closer to Him, to teach us to depend not on riches but on righteousness and on His grace. Do not live in fear that you must earn His help. Come to Him as a child, trusting in the mercy He has already shown in sending His Son for you.

Continue to pray Psalm 23, and also bring your need to the church near you. God often provides through His people. Let your local congregation know that you lack enough to eat and that you are ill. The Lord intends for His people to bear one another's burdens, and there will be comfort not only from heaven but also from brothers and sisters whom He will stir to help.

We pray that God will fill you with hope, that He will guard your heart from despair, and that He will give you peace that He is with you in this valley. May He heal your body, supply what you need for each day, sustain your faith, and let you see His goodness even while you wait. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who hears those who call upon Him. Amen.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing so honestly about what you are carrying. Hearing that you have been sick for weeks with this flu, without enough to eat, and waiting months for help that keeps being delayed is heavy, and it is right to bring it to the Lord as you have. Your prayer already shows a trusting heart, thanking the Father for a new day and for sending His Son for us, and turning to His promises in Psalm 23 again and again.

That psalm is a good place to stay. The Lord is our Shepherd, and that truth does not change when our bodies are weak or our needs are pressing. Scripture speaks of faith as the confidence that gives substance to what we hope for and the evidence of what we cannot yet see. It is not only a description of faith but a picture of what faith does. We have not seen God with our eyes, yet we do not doubt He is there, because His reality is shown all around us and His Word assures us. Faith lays hold of that unseen reality and makes our hope solid while we wait.

You asked if you have done something to bring this hardship on yourself. Please hear this with gentleness. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by our own efforts, and that faith is itself a gift from God. We do not earn His favor by works, and works cannot create faith. At the same time, a living faith will show itself in how we live, because true trust in God naturally leads to obedience. But God looks at the faith that prompts the action, and He counts that faith as righteousness for all who trust in Christ, just as He did for Abraham. The New Testament holds up Abraham as an example of faith marked by obedience, and it passes over his failures and lapses. That is a comfort, because God uses imperfect people, and even strong believers have times when their faith wavers. A lapse does not mean you have lost His love, and faith itself grows over time as we walk with Him and learn His faithfulness.

It is also important to know that faith is not a formula that guarantees immediate healing or immediate provision, and suffering is not proof that faith is small or absent. Scripture tells us that some who trusted God saw great deliverances, they subdued kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched fire, escaped the sword, and obtained promises. Others with the same faith endured hardship, suffering and even death, still trusting without having received everything promised in this life. They all died in faith. This shows us that having faith does not automatically spare us from sickness or need, and God does not measure the reality of your faith by how quickly your circumstances change.

The testing of faith can feel very personal, but it is not because God needs to find out what is in your heart. He already knows you fully. The proving is for our good, to strengthen and refine what He has already given. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, and it is often hindered when we add conditions in our minds about how God must act. Simple trust that looks to Jesus and His grace is what He honors. He has given to each a measure of faith to believe in Christ, and at times He gives a special strengthening of faith for a particular need. That gift may not feel present every moment, and that is normal. Even great examples in Scripture knew both courage and fear.

So continue to bring your needs to Him plainly. It is right to ask for healing, for daily bread, and for the help you need from those institutions to come without further delay. It is also right to ask Him to strengthen your faith, as you have. He hears. While you wait, please do not walk through this alone. Faith that is alive will reach out, and God often provides through the hands of His people. If you are able, let a local congregation or other believers near you know about your lack of food and your ongoing illness, so they can come alongside you with practical help and prayer. That is not a lack of faith, it is one way faith becomes visible.

I am praying for you now, that the Lord will touch your body and bring recovery, that He will provide food for each day and open the way for the support you have been waiting for, that He will guard your heart from discouragement and from false guilt, and that He will make His presence very near as you keep hearing His Word. The Shepherd who laid down His life for you is with you in this valley, and those who are justified live by faith in Him, trusting Him both for today and for the life to come. May He give you peace that rests in Him even before you see the answer, and may you know more deeply how much you are loved and cared for in Christ.