Healing Prayer
Is there anything you are afraid to ask for?
When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean." He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. - Matthew 8:1-3
In this Gospel reading, Jesus cures a leper because the leper came and knelt before him and told him he knew Jesus could cure him if he chose.
We read this and we think of friends and family who are suffering with an illness or life-threatening disease and we shudder.
Would we want someone to put all their faith in God and not in doctors? I don't think so.
Because we don't see Jesus, we don't kneel before him and ask him to cure us or our lived ones. Instead, we pray for his help. Help for the doctors, help for our strength, help for the treatment, help for our family.
Why not go all in and ask for a cure?
Jesus, I know you can make this go away. I know you can cure my friend and make her whole, make him cancer free, make them healthy. It is in your hands.
I believe he wants to hear from us and is ready to do what we ask, so why not ask?
No matter how dark, no matter how unlikely the task may seem, nothing is impossible for God. When we come to Him in faith, and we truly believe He will hear us and respond, new realities can happen.
So, all of us who know someone who is sick, someone in need of healing in any way, let us take a moment now and pray for them.
Dear Lord, we come to you not for ourselves but for those we love, your children in need of healing. Take them to you and cure them of their afflictions, so they may continue to love and serve you here in this life and be the light that shines in the darkness for others a little while longer. We ask this in the name of Jesus, the healer of the world. Amen.
More to come...