Prayer for now

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer has been received with thanksgiving, and I join my voice with yours to say Amen. It is good and right to bring before God those who have been forgotten, mistreated, rejected and isolated, and to ask for His mercy to heal what others have wounded.

We pray together for what you have asked. May the Lord cover His people with His protection and quench every attack of the enemy. May He heal hearts and minds and souls with a deep healing, restore what has been stolen, build up confidence, and provide what is needed for daily life so that His people can stand steady and also be a blessing to others. May He heal trauma, calm troubled emotions, grant His peace that allows rest, and give deep and restorative sleep to those who lie awake. May He grant grace, strength and endurance, and loose His joy over those who sorrow. May He heal relationships, bring unity to families and friends, and lead the lonely into faithful community where they can grow in their calling and be delivered from their troubles.

You asked that God would not leave His people rooted in unforgiveness, pride or resentment. That is a wise prayer. Forgiveness and humility and gratitude are not a single act but a way of life that must be cultivated with care. It is not enough to be freed from one evil only, but we must pursue every part of virtue with continual attention to hearing the Word, remembering it, and living it with courage. So we pray that God will give grace to walk in forgiveness as we have been forgiven in Christ, and to walk in humility before Him and gratitude for all His gifts.

You also prayed for healing and for signs of His power. We believe that God does heal and that He is able to do more than we ask. At the same time we remember that faith comes by hearing the word of God, and that God often works not by immediately removing every hardship, but by teaching us to stand firm within it and to trust the immortality and hope we have in Christ. As a physician applies medicine again and again, so God works through repeated hearing and steadfast prayer, and what seems unfruitful for a long time may suddenly bear abundant fruit. Therefore let us persevere in prayer and in hearing Scripture, confident that God hears.

We stand with you on the promise that Christ reigns and that all things are under His feet, as you recalled from 1 Corinthians 15:27, and we thank God that the victory belongs to Him. May He bring the right people to read this prayer and be encouraged by it, and may He answer according to His perfect wisdom and love in Jesus name.

Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer reflects a heart that cares deeply for those who feel forgotten, mistreated, rejected and isolated, and God hears that kind of intercession. Scripture shows that He sees those who are overlooked and He is a God of restoration who works to mend what sin and brokenness have damaged in this world in a general sense.

You asked for healing on many levels, for body, mind, emotions and soul, for protection, for peace and sleep, for restored confidence and provision, for mended relationships and for a faithful community. Those are right and good things to bring to the Father in the name of Jesus.

The Bible teaches that Jesus bore our infirmities and sicknesses, as Isaiah foretold and Matthew confirms when he describes Jesus healing the leper, the centurion's servant, Peter's mother in law and multitudes who were sick and oppressed. He went about doing good, teaching, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of sickness and disease among the people. That same power belongs to Him still in both the physical and the spiritual realm, and He is able to calm what is troubled and to command what oppresses.

At the same time Scripture keeps us from presuming that healing will always come in the way or the timing we expect. There is only one recorded miracle where Jesus healed gradually, laying His hands on a blind man a second time before sight was fully restored. That account, along with many others, reminds us that healing sometimes comes gradually and sometimes through the natural processes God Himself built into our bodies. Those processes are no less divine, because the One who created nature ordained them. Healing can also be deeply inward, when God mends wounds in the mind and emotions and brings wholeness to scars that others cannot see.

We also see in Scripture that God did not remove the thorn in the flesh from Paul even after repeated prayer, which teaches us not to assume that God wills physical healing in every case or that ongoing sickness is a sign of weak faith or spiritual failure. We simply do not understand fully why some are healed and others are not, and we must avoid the phoniness and frenzy that sometimes surrounds this subject. God is not honored by exploitation or by a circus atmosphere, but by quiet trust in His goodness and sovereignty.

What we can do is come to Him honestly, as you have, and ask. Like the woman who had suffered for twelve years and reached out to touch the hem of His garment, faith reaches out to Jesus Himself and virtue goes forth from Him according to His will. You can trust Him with the outcome while you keep praying for those who are hurting.

So we join you in prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus we ask You to show Your merciful loving kindness to those who feel forgotten and alone. Cover them with Your protection and guard them from the attacks of the enemy. Bring healing where there is trauma, anxiety, and sleeplessness, and grant deep rest to body and mind. Heal memories and emotions, lift rumination and grant Your shalom peace. Where there is a binding of the mind, bring freedom. Restore confidence, provide for daily needs, and enable Your people to bless others. Work forgiveness, humility and gratitude in hearts, and release Your joy. Mend families and friendships, and bring into their lives people who are loyal, kind, respectful and who will help them grow in the calling You have given them. Place the isolated in healthy community where they can be built up and where they can be a blessing to others. Give grace, strength and endurance for each day.

We thank You that Jesus, in His death and resurrection, bore our sins and our infirmities, and that as 1 Corinthians 15:27 declares, all things are put under His feet. The victory is Yours, and ultimate restoration is certain in Christ, whether You bring deliverance now in this life or in fullness in Your heavenly kingdom. Help us to trust Your wisdom and love in every circumstance and to keep looking to Jesus.

Amen.