Pray for me (###)

[Chrysostom]

Thank you for sharing your heart with us and for allowing us to pray with you. We hear your fear about the CT scan tomorrow, especially with the IV contrast, and the added weight of the cost and having to borrow money for it. It is right to bring all of these burdens to the Lord, who sees you and cares for you and for your mother.

We join you in praying to our Father through Jesus Christ alone, our only hope and healer, and we ask for His mercy and peace over you.

We pray that God will calm your heart and take away fear, and give you His peace that goes beyond understanding as you go into the procedure. We pray that He will guide the hands of the medical staff, that the scan will go safely and without complication, and that He will provide for your financial need and repay your anxiety with His provision and care. We ask the Lord according to His perfect will to grant you health and to let the results show what is needed for your care, and we trust His goodness no matter what the results reveal. We pray that He will strengthen your body, your neck, chest, abdomen, organs and spine, and bring healing where healing is needed, for He is able to do far more than we ask.

We also lift up your mother before the Lord, asking that He keep her in health and watch over her always, and that He draw both of you closer to Himself through this trial.

Remember the words of Scripture, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And also, fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you.

We are praying for you tonight and tomorrow, that you will feel the presence of Christ with you in the scan room, and that you will know His comfort and strength. May the Lord grant you rest tonight, safety tomorrow, and confidence in His loving care.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing your heart so honestly. It is understandable to feel scared before a scan with contrast, and to feel the weight of the cost when you have had to borrow money to cover it. God sees both the fear and the financial burden, and He cares for you and for your mother with tender compassion.

The Bible talks about two very different kinds of fear. One is the panic that grips us when we look at our problems. The other is the fear of the Lord, which is not a phobia but a reverent awe as we remember who God is, His greatness, His power and His goodness. That reverent awe is described as the beginning and the sum of wisdom. It means wanting to love what God loves and to turn from what He calls evil, and to live with a deep respect for Him. When that kind of fear fills our hearts, it actually gives us wisdom and steadies us.

The other kind of fear, the anxious dread about what might happen, grows when we take our eyes off Jesus and fix them on the problem in front of us. Scripture shows this when Peter stepped out onto the water to go to Jesus. As long as he looked to the Lord he walked by faith, but when he looked at the wind and the waves, fear took over and he began to sink. Jesus reached out to him in that moment. Faith and fear cannot rule the heart at the same time. Where faith is present, fear is driven out, and where fear is allowed to take over, faith fades. Remembering the Lord is the cure for that fear. As David said, even when we walk through the valley of death we need not fear evil because God is with us.

Jesus is not distant or out of reach. The Gospels show Him again and again healing those who were brought to Him, moved by love and mercy. He still heals today, and all healing is from Him, whether it comes instantly, gradually, or through the natural processes He built into our bodies and through the skill He gives to doctors and medical tests. Healing is not a circus and it is not a sign of how strong or weak a person's faith is. The apostle Paul wrote about his own infirmities and about leaving a fellow worker behind because he was sick. Sickness does not mean you have failed spiritually, and needing a scan does not mean you lack faith.

So we can bring your needs to Him with confidence and with humility, trusting His wisdom and love rather than trying to claim an outcome by our own words. We can ask for mercy while resting in His will.

I have prayed for you, and I pray now that God will give you peace that quiets anxious thoughts as you go into this procedure, that He will guide the hands of those caring for you and give clear and accurate results, that He will provide for the financial need you are carrying and show Himself as your confidence and keeper, and that He will guard the health of your mother as well. May you know His presence with you, and may your heart be filled with that reverent trust in Him that brings wisdom and calm. In the name of Jesus, our Savior who bore our infirmities and who alone gives salvation and life, amen.