Silas
Beloved of All
I have read your prayer with care and I hear how heavy this burden has felt and how urgently you want relief. Thank you for bringing it honestly before the Lord and before others who care for you. You are not alone in this struggle. Scripture teaches that all who belong to Christ are one body with many parts, and when one part suffers the whole body suffers with it. God has placed each part in the body as it has pleased Him, and every part is needed for the body to be whole. Your pain matters to the Lord and it matters to His people.
God made your body with wonderful design. The same elements that are in the dust are in our bodies, and the body itself is a marvel of His creation with real needs for air, water and nourishment. Yet what sets you apart from the rest of creation is that you are not only body and mind, you are also spirit, made in the image of God to know Him and to have fellowship with Him. Animals have a body and consciousness, but you have a spirit that can know God, choose Him, and bring Him pleasure. At death this body returns to dust when the spirit moves out, which is why Jesus said not to fear those who can harm only the body, but to care most deeply about the life of the soul before God.
Because of this, Scripture calls you to see your body in a new way. This body is not your own to use as you please, it has been bought with a price and is now the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you. The calling is to offer your body to God and to yield its members as instruments of righteousness and holiness, so that Christ may be glorified in your body. When the body rules over the mind, thoughts become consumed with what to eat, what to drink, what to wear, how to look, and we become slaves to physical drives. Through Christ that slavery can be broken, so that sin no longer has dominion and you are no longer ruled by those drives, even while you still care for the body God gave you.
The Lord does care about physical healing. When Matthew speaks of Jesus healing those who were brought to Him, He connects it to the prophecy of Isaiah that Christ would bear our sicknesses. When Jesus took bread and said this is my body broken for you, He was pointing to the suffering He would endure for us, and through that suffering healing is provided. That healing includes the body and not only the spirit, and we are invited to bring every physical need to Him and to discern with thankfulness what He has done for us. At the same time we come to Him not by commanding Him, but by trusting Him, submitting our desires to His wisdom and love and asking for His will to be done.
So I want to pray for you in that way. I pray that the Lord will lift the weight of anxiety and self focus that has occupied your thoughts, and give you peace as you rest in His care. I pray that He will touch your body according to His perfect wisdom, bring healing where healing is needed, and give you wisdom for good and faithful care of your skin, your eyes and your whole health. Above all I pray that He will help you to see yourself as He sees you, to offer your whole self, body, soul and spirit, to Him for His purposes, and to know deep assurance that you are valued, necessary and loved as a part of His body. May He fill you with His Spirit, teach you to live not for yourself alone but for Him, and give you rest in knowing that your life finds its meaning in belonging to Jesus Christ.
God made your body with wonderful design. The same elements that are in the dust are in our bodies, and the body itself is a marvel of His creation with real needs for air, water and nourishment. Yet what sets you apart from the rest of creation is that you are not only body and mind, you are also spirit, made in the image of God to know Him and to have fellowship with Him. Animals have a body and consciousness, but you have a spirit that can know God, choose Him, and bring Him pleasure. At death this body returns to dust when the spirit moves out, which is why Jesus said not to fear those who can harm only the body, but to care most deeply about the life of the soul before God.
Because of this, Scripture calls you to see your body in a new way. This body is not your own to use as you please, it has been bought with a price and is now the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you. The calling is to offer your body to God and to yield its members as instruments of righteousness and holiness, so that Christ may be glorified in your body. When the body rules over the mind, thoughts become consumed with what to eat, what to drink, what to wear, how to look, and we become slaves to physical drives. Through Christ that slavery can be broken, so that sin no longer has dominion and you are no longer ruled by those drives, even while you still care for the body God gave you.
The Lord does care about physical healing. When Matthew speaks of Jesus healing those who were brought to Him, He connects it to the prophecy of Isaiah that Christ would bear our sicknesses. When Jesus took bread and said this is my body broken for you, He was pointing to the suffering He would endure for us, and through that suffering healing is provided. That healing includes the body and not only the spirit, and we are invited to bring every physical need to Him and to discern with thankfulness what He has done for us. At the same time we come to Him not by commanding Him, but by trusting Him, submitting our desires to His wisdom and love and asking for His will to be done.
So I want to pray for you in that way. I pray that the Lord will lift the weight of anxiety and self focus that has occupied your thoughts, and give you peace as you rest in His care. I pray that He will touch your body according to His perfect wisdom, bring healing where healing is needed, and give you wisdom for good and faithful care of your skin, your eyes and your whole health. Above all I pray that He will help you to see yourself as He sees you, to offer your whole self, body, soul and spirit, to Him for His purposes, and to know deep assurance that you are valued, necessary and loved as a part of His body. May He fill you with His Spirit, teach you to live not for yourself alone but for Him, and give you rest in knowing that your life finds its meaning in belonging to Jesus Christ.
