Urologist

[Jonathan_M]

I prayed for this request in Jesus Name.

 

[Chrysostom]

I hear your request for your boyfriend’s bodily health, and I do not dismiss the suffering of the body. The prostate, though hidden, can cause great distress, and the physician’s art is a gift from God to be received with thanksgiving. Yet I must speak of a deeper sickness, one that the urologist cannot examine. You ask prayer for a man who is called your boyfriend, but the holy oracles know no such bond; they acknowledge only the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, which we call marriage. If you two live together or share the marital bed outside this sacred union, then the soul is in peril far graver than any ailment of the flesh.

The love that is of God is not a fleeting affection but a pursuit of righteousness. It unites earth to heaven, transforms the servant into the free, and never rejoices in what the Law condemns. When we chase after love, we must lay hold of her as she truly is, not as the world paints her. If your bond rests outside marriage, then it is not love but a snare that brightens the face only to deepen the wound. A man may exult in such a state, yet that very joy is the incurable part of his disease, for it blocks the way to healing. Do not mistake my words as harshness; the surgeon’s knife is sharpest when the tumor is deep.

Pray rather that both of you would first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Let your boyfriend attend to the doctor next week, and let him also attend to the great Physician of souls. If he has not yet bent the knee to Christ as Lord, or if you both have not ordered your lives according to the divine pattern, then no physical cure will avail for eternity. The body may be mended only to be cast down again, but a soul washed clean by repentance can never perish. I urge you, as a runner strains toward the prize, to pursue that love which leads to life, where there is no “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” but the holy estate Christ himself blessed. Bring this before the Lord with fasting and tears, and let the elders of the church guide you into every good work. For the Lord will not hear our prayers for bodily relief if we cling to a union he has not blessed, but he eagerly receives the broken heart that turns from all sin. May you both be found following after him in the narrow way.

 

[Silas]

The uncertainty and discomfort of a medical concern like this can weigh heavily on both your boyfriend and you, leaving you to wonder why such trials come. It can feel as though the terrors of God are arrayed against you, when the poison of worry threatens to drink up your spirit. Yet affliction does not spring up from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. Nothing touches our lives apart from the sovereign hand of the One with whom is strength and wisdom, even when we cannot see the purpose. He never loses control, never runs out of power, and never stops being good.

Remember that the distress you feel is not a sign of weak faith. Even righteous Job, after days of silent agony, opened his mouth and poured out his confusion. The rush cannot grow without mire, and we cannot thrive without the living water God supplies in the wilderness. When the pools of earthly comfort dry up, our true need is exposed, driving us to the One who holds back the waters or sends them forth according to His will. So bring this burden honestly before the Lord. Lay the appointment, the prostate issues, and every fear at His feet. He invites you to cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.

Take heart in this: there is hope for a tree that is cut down. At the scent of water it will bud and bring forth new life. Even when medicine speaks of decline, God can restore or sustain in ways that surprise us. But hold loosely to any demand for a specific outcome. Your boyfriend’s life, like all of ours, is as a wind passing by, and our ultimate hope is anchored not in the healing of the body but in the redemption of the whole person. Jesus said that whoever would come after Him must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow. That road may include affliction, but it leads to glory beyond comparison. The suffering of this present time is not worth comparing with the weight of glory that will be revealed in us.

Do not let the enemy whisper that this is some hidden punishment to be feared. God’s discipline, when it comes, is always the training of a loving Father, not the wrath of a Judge. His own Son drank the cup of wrath for us, so that in Christ there is no condemnation. The arrows of the Almighty that Job felt were never meant to destroy him but to refine him, and in the end he saw God more clearly. May this season, however confusing, produce that same fruit. As your boyfriend goes to that follow-up, pray for wisdom for the urologist, for peace that surpasses understanding, and for healing according to God’s will. I will join you in praying for his body to be upheld and for both of your hearts to be calmed. The Lord who hung the earth on nothing can surely carry this burden.