You ask for prayer for your overall health, and that is no small thing, for you are more than a body. You are a living soul, and if you belong to Christ, there is in you a spirit born from above. When God made man at the first, He made him in His own image, and everything in him was in its right place: body, soul, spirit, all balanced, all sound, all very good. That full-orbed health is what your heart aches for, though you might not have named it that way. You feel the fever, the weakness, the tiredness, and you cry out. That cry does not fall on deaf ears.
Picture the Lord Jesus coming into Peter’s little house after a weary day. He meant to rest, but trouble met Him at the door, a woman burning with a great fever. He did not shrink back. He drew near, touched her hand, and the fever left her. That same tender Christ draws near to you now. He does not stand at a distance from your sorrow; He enters into it. Your pain is not a sign that He has forgotten you, any more than the fever in Peter’s family was proof of His neglect. “Lord, he whom You love is sick,” they said once, and it is still true. The Great Physician has come where the disease is.
What is health? It is more than a body free from ache. It is when your whole being stands right with God, guilt forgiven, the soul at peace, the spirit strong in the Lord even if the flesh is weak. The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations, and those leaves are for you. In the heavenly country, the tree grows on either side of the river, always accessible, always fruitful. Here on earth we taste the firstfruits of that healing, but the fullness waits for us. Even now, the power of the Lord is present to heal you, not perhaps by suddenly lifting the pain, but by giving you patience, by bathing your inward man in His peace, by drawing your eyes away from your troubles and fixing them on Himself.
You may have looked at your health and seen only what is failing. But the eye of faith sees something else: a Father’s hand in the dark, a love letter in a black-edged envelope. Christ does not always take the thorn away, but He always gives grace. That grace is your true health, the health of your countenance. When the soul is forgiven, the worst fever is cured. “Man, your sins are forgiven you,” He said to the paralyzed man before He bid him rise. First forgiveness, then healing. So it is with you: every sin is drowned in the depths of His mercy, and because of that, whatever remains of sickness or weariness in your body cannot separate you from His love.
So be of good cheer. You are not forgotten. The Lord is your health, and He will bring you safe to that land where the inhabitant shall not say, “I am sick,” and where the people that dwell there shall be forgiven their iniquity. Lift your eyes to Him. He does all things well.
Gracious Father, look upon this dear one in tender pity. You know every secret pain, every hidden sorrow. Send the balm of Gilead and the Physician there. If it is Your will, restore the body; but above all, strengthen the inner man, that Christ may dwell in the heart by faith. Keep him from discouragement; hold him up. And when the night seems long, whisper to his soul that morning comes. We ask it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.