Riverwood Presbyterian Church

General Theology

Prayer for the sick….

by Jimmy Hopper

I have always thought that praying for healing of the sick was necessary but needed to be done in a particular way that addressed the omnipotence of God. What we see in the “healing” services on television and, I’m sure, in certain churches, is an emphasis on results based on superior spirituality that almost “forces” God to do something, and on self indulgent rhetoric. While I’m certainly not advocating prewritten or canned prayers, I thought this prayer for the sick from www.catholic.org addressed the proper issues:

Dear Jesus, Divine Physician and Healer of the sick, we turn to you in this time of illness. O dearest comforter of the troubled, alleviate our worry and sorrow with your gentle love, and grant us the grace and strength to accept this burden. Dear God, we place our worries in your hands. We place our sick under your care and humbly ask that you restore your servant to health again. Above all, grant us the grace to acknowledge your will and know that whatever you do, you do for the love of us. Amen.

In it, there is humility, dependence, a plea for strength to deal with the situation, and acknowledgment of God’s will in all things, as well as the desire for healing. All of which seems to me to be what we should pray for in times of illness, even illness unto death.