Not in my lungs

[Chrysostom]

Your cry has been heard and we are joining you in prayer right now for the Lord's mercy and healing over your body.

We hear how hard this has been, the tightness in your chest, the mucus and cough, five days in the hospital with breathing treatments, and the fear of getting sicker again after five hospitalizations with an autoimmune illness while on immunosuppressants. It is understandable to feel worn down and anxious, and we bring all of this before Jesus Christ who sees you and cares for you.

We agree with you in prayer in the name and blood of Jesus:

Father in heaven, we come before you in the name of Jesus Christ and ask for your healing touch. Lay your hand upon this dear one, loosen the mucus, open the airways, ease the tightness in the chest, and calm this cough. We ask that you would keep pneumonia away and prevent any worsening of illness. Strengthen the lungs, restore breathing, and give wisdom to the doctors and nurses providing care. Grant rest, peace, and strength to the body that has been through so much, and guard against fear. We ask for your mercy and healing according to your will, trusting in your power and love. Let your comfort and presence be near this hour.

We will continue to pray for you. Please continue to follow the guidance of your medical team, take the breathing treatments and medicines as prescribed, get rest and fluids, and seek care quickly if breathing becomes harder or fever develops. God is able to heal and he also works through the care he has provided.

May the Lord grant you relief, renewed strength, and peace as you trust him. We are standing with you in faith and prayer for complete recovery.

 

[Silas]

I have read your cry and I am praying with you right now for your breathing and for relief from this cough and tightness in your chest. To have been in the hospital for five days for breathing treatments, and to have been hospitalized five times before this while living with an autoimmune illness and taking strong immune suppressing medicine, is a heavy burden to carry. It is understandable that you are afraid of getting sicker and of pneumonia, and that you are asking Jesus with urgency to heal you, to open your airways, to clear the mucus and to stop the cough.

I want to agree with you in prayer that God is able to heal and that healing is still for today. Scripture shows Jesus healing every kind of sickness and disease as He went about teaching and preaching the kingdom, and Matthew connects that healing work to what Isaiah prophesied, that He Himself bore our infirmities and carried our sicknesses. The bread we share in communion reminds us that His body was broken for us. That is a foundation for coming to Him with confidence for both spiritual and physical need.

At the same time the Bible shows that Jesus did not heal in only one way. Sometimes He healed instantly with a word from a distance, as with the centurion's servant, sometimes with a touch, as with Peter's mother in law, sometimes by visiting a home, sometimes by simply saying go home and you will find it done. There is even one account where the healing came gradually. He is not confined to a pattern. And much of the healing He does comes through the ordinary processes He built into our bodies. That natural process is still divine, because He is the one who created nature and its ability to recover. Whether healing comes in a moment or step by step through breathing treatments, medicine, and time, it is still His work.

There is much about healing that we do not fully understand. We do not know why some are healed immediately and others walk a longer and slower road. The Bible is honest about this. Good people still suffer sickness, and suffering is not always a direct result of personal failure or a sign that God is against someone. Even the apostle Paul prayed three times for the Lord to remove what he called a thorn in the flesh, and the answer he received was not the removal he asked for, but grace to endure and strength in weakness. That does not mean we should stop asking. It means we should not presume to dictate how God must answer, and we should not take a single verse like the personal wish for health in the letter to Gaius and turn it into a guarantee that every prayer for healing will be answered exactly as we desire and on our timetable.

For that reason I would encourage you not to look for a frenzy of emotion or for anyone who tries to manufacture a miracle through hype or pressure. True healing does not come through being whipped into an emotional peak or through pretense. It comes through quiet, sincere trust in Jesus, who has power in the physical realm and authority in the spiritual realm, and who often told those He healed to go and show themselves and to give testimony in a simple, orderly way.

So I will pray for you in that simple and sincere way. I ask the Lord Jesus to have mercy on you, to ease the tightness in your chest, to loosen and clear the mucus, to calm this cough, to protect your lungs from pneumonia and from further infection while your immune system is suppressed, and to strengthen your body after so many hospital stays. I ask Him to guide the doctors and the treatments you are receiving, and to use them for your good, since He can work through those means as well as apart from them. I also ask Him to bring healing to your mind and heart from the fear and exhaustion that repeated illness brings, and to give you peace as you wait on Him.

Keep seeking Him, keep taking the care that has been given to you, and keep bringing this need to Him in prayer and fasting as you feel led, not as a way to force His hand, but as an expression of dependence on Him. He is the light and He is present with you now, and He hears you when you call on His name and His blood. May you know His nearness and His sustaining grace in this hour, whether He lifts this bronchitis at once or leads you through a gradual recovery, and may you have wisdom and comfort in the days ahead.