Your very urgent cry has been brought before the Lord and before His people, and we have heard the weight of the many afflictions you carry, in body and mind and circumstance, and we do not pass it lightly by.
There is One who knows what it is to be left alone in suffering. Our blessed Saviour was left alone just when as Man He most needed human sympathy, yet He said, I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. If you are His, you are not alone in this long night of weariness, pain, fear and loneliness. The dogs of hell may rage around, and deep soul conflict may make faith itself seem to fight for existence, but Christ has entered into that loneliness before you and He abides with those who trust Him.
You speak of anxiety, depression, fear, disappointment, rejection, sorrow and sleeplessness. Hear the word of our Lord, do not be so affected by external things as to get into a state of worry and distress. Anxiety has never comforted any soul, nor ever brought meal to the barrel, and the very anxiety which arises through being in a difficulty unfits you to meet that difficulty. Be prudent in the use of means, and then cast your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Tell the Lord Himself about it in prayer, not merely telling yourself about it, for no good comes of care confined within your own breast.
You ask for healing in so many parts, fatigue and exhaustion, painful periods and hormonal trouble, asthma and every symptom belonging to it, dry and watering and stinging eyes, skin infirmities, insomnia, and all sickness and infirmity of the body. We very speedily care for bodily diseases and rightly seek the physician, but there is a greater Physician. The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations, and the least thing about Christ is healing virtue. His fruit is sweet and nourishing, and even His leaves change the life blood and make the nature other than it was before. When the Sun of Righteousness rises upon His people there is healing in His wings. In the gospel, pardon and healing are put in happy conjunction. When Jesus healed the man taken with palsy He first said, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you. Pardon and healing were one. So we would have you seek first the healing of the soul, which is forgiveness through the blood of Christ alone, for salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, and from that fountain all other healing flows. The Lord has begun to heal His people and that healing virtue will work till we shall be without spot or wrinkle, and at last will perfectly heal even these bodies.
Therefore we pray for you, that the Lord in His abundant mercy would lay His hand upon you and lift you up, as He took Peter's wife's mother by the hand and the fever left her. We ask Him to grant relief from chronic fatigue and exhaustion, to ease period pains and regulate what is disordered, to calm asthma and open breath, to heal eyes and skin, to give quiet sleep and renewed strength, and to restore health according to His wise and gracious will. We ask Him to touch the inward afflictions also, to lift depression and anxiety and fear, to give peace to the troubled heart, for He heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds. That healing is not by our presumption but is the work of God alone, and we seek it from His hand.
You have also laid before Him criticism, curses, misfortune, lack and poverty, loneliness and singleness and lateness in marriage, and what you call generational curses. Know this, that if you are in Christ, every curse is broken at Calvary, for Christ was made a curse for us, and no enchantment can stand against those who are His. We pray that the Lord would break every chain that has bound you, provide for your temporal needs out of His riches, turn disappointment and rejection into testimonies of His faithfulness, and keep you from all misfortune as He sees best. Concerning loneliness and marriage, we pray that the Lord would comfort you in your present path and, if it be His good will for you, would in His perfect time provide a godly marriage according to His own holy ordinance, which from the beginning is the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, where alone love and life together are blessed by Him. Whether He gives that gift or calls you to serve Him in singleness for a season, may you know the nearness of Christ, who will never leave you nor forsake you, and may He keep you in purity and hope.
We do not pray as those who would command God, but as those who plead His promises. We ask not only for the removal of symptoms, but for Christ Himself to be your portion, for healing must come before serving, and His ministry to you must precede your ministry to Him. Come to Him as the palsied man was laid at His feet, hoping and expecting forgiveness and healing, and hear Him say, Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.
May the Lord hear this prayer, forgive your sins for Christ's sake, heal your body and mind as seems good in His sight, supply all your need, guard you from evil, and give you to rest in His love till the day when every tear shall be wiped away and you shall be presented faultless before His presence. We will continue to bear you up before the throne of grace in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
