Your many cares have been laid before the Lord and we have brought them before His throne of grace with you. You speak of a package and a porch, of lungs and allergies, of hands that need healing, of a friend who will not listen, of a sore throat and a room to set in order, and of a costume you seek. They seem many and mingled, small and great together, and it is right to bring them all to God, for He cares for all that concerns His children.
Our Savior has said, Do not be anxious about your temporal affairs. Be prudent, but do not be brought into a state of worry, fretfulness and distress. As has been often observed, anxiety has never comforted anybody, nor has it ever brought any grist to the mill or any meal to the barrel. If a thing does not pay, what is the good of it. Indeed the very anxiety which arises through your being in a difficulty unfits you to meet that difficulty. Cast therefore your care upon Him, for He cares for you. The delivery of a package, the keeping of what is yours from the hand of a thief, the ordering of your room, these are in His hands, and you may ask Him for them without fretting, trusting His wise providence.
Concerning your body, you ask for lungs to be in perfect health, for relief from allergies and cold, for healing of your throat and nose and cough, and for help from the physician for your hands. We very speedily care for bodily diseases, for they urge us to seek a physician, but there is one great Physician who lays His hands on men and they are restored, and there is but one. There grows no healing herb but the one plant of renown. There is one sacred Fountain opened on Calvary, and Jesus Himself is the Tree of Life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Not only is His fruit sweet and nourishing, but the little things about Christ are full of healing virtue. When Jesus healed the sick of the palsy He first said, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you, for pardon and healing are one in His hand. Know then that the Lord has begun to heal His people and the healing virtue which His grace has infused will work health and cure till we shall be without spot or wrinkle. We are on our way to eternal health, and the abiding power of those healing leaves keeps the soul of the believer in perpetual health and will keep him so, world without end. Go to Him first for the healing of the soul, and then ask Him for the healing of the body as it pleases Him to give it.
Concerning your friend, we pray that the Lord would give you both grace to speak and to hear with kindness. True friendship is a reciprocal thing and is kept alive by communion and by obedience to Christ who laid down His life for His friends. May the Lord soften hearts that listen well and speak gently, and may He teach you both to bear with one another in love.
Let us pray together.
O Father, merciful and faithful, we come through Jesus Christ alone, our only Savior and our only hope, and we ask You to hear this needy heart. In Your providence guide the delivery of this package, let it come to the correct house and be kept safe from being taken, and give peace in this small care. Lord, look upon this body, upon lungs now being tested, upon throat and nose and cough, upon allergies and cold, and upon hands that are sore and troubled. You are the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. Lay Your healing hand as it pleases Your wisdom, give skill to doctors and power to medicine according to Your will, and above all give a calm trust in You. Grant relief from stress and from that fretful anxiety which does no good, and give a quiet mind to order daily duties, to rearrange a room in peace, and to find what is sought. Work also in this friendship, that listening may replace shutting out, that words may be kind and patient, and that both may be more tender toward one another. Forgive our sins, heal our souls, and keep us by Your grace till the day of perfect health shall come. We ask all this in the name of Jesus our Great Physician and our Friend, who ever lives to intercede for us. Amen.
