Theme of the Week: Recharging Your Heart Through Prayer
Bible Verse: “And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.” Mark 2:3a ESV
Scripture Reading: Mark 2:3-5
Loving Jesus, today I woke up thinking about friends who live with chronic illness—those with mental and emotional illnesses in particular. I come bringing you both the sufferers and the caregivers, confident of your great compassion.
Jesus, I cry out to you on behalf of the sufferers—these precious men and women whose capacity to think and feel is painfully distorted. I pray for those who suffer with various degrees of depression. I pray for friends trying to make sense of hard providences and your promises. I pray for those unable to grieve losses and betrayals in a healthy way. I pray for those who live in the angry void of despair and hopelessness. I pray for those whose war with self-contempt makes death look like a good choice. You know the names and the details, and you alone have the grace.
All I know to do is bring these dear ones to you in prayer, much like those who brought their paralyzed friend to you on a pallet. I know you are merciful, and I know you are mighty. Only you know what’s going on in each of them. I wish a clear and certain diagnosis was easy to secure. It’s not always easy to discern what’s physiological, psychological, demonic, or just the absence of the gospel. Give us what we need to love and to serve these broken ones well.
When we’re fearful and confused, when we are fed up and used up, give us all the wisdom, compassion, and faith to love well. Jesus, it’s this kind of suffering that makes me wish for miracles on demand. Help us trust you for supernatural intervention and grace for supernatural long-term caring. Write the stories that will maximize your glory.
How we long for the day when every form of brokenness will give way to the endless joys of spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional health. I pray in your holy and healing name. Amen.
From Everyday Prayers: 365 Days to a Gospel-Centered Faith. Copyright ©2011 by Scotty Smith. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, MI. bakerpublishinggroup.com
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