Do you know someone who is desperate in illness?
For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 2 Corinthians 1:8
Great Physician,
What good news —
you are near to the broken-bodied
and save those who are
crushed in spirit
and in hope for health (See Psalm 34:18).
Today, we bring our sick and suffering friends before you,
asking for your help and your hope.
We think of Jairus,
who fell down at your feet
and pleaded for his little daughter,
saying she was “at the point of death.”
How desperate he must have felt
when you stopped to heal the hemorrhaging woman,
who also was surely desperate,
because she reached out and touched your robe
even though she knew her illness made her unclean (Mark 5:21-43).
How desperate Jairus must have felt
when his friends ran to him
and told him his daughter had died.
How desperate the apostle Paul must have been,
after he asked (at least) three times
that you would heal his thorn in the flesh
and was told “no” (See (2 Corinthians 12:8).
And yet, Paul, who suffered much in his body
for the sake of the gospel,
who, though he “despaired of life itself,” (2 Corinthians 1:8)
gave us the words we pray now,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our affliction,
so that we may be able to comfort those
who are in any affliction,
with the comfort
with which we ourselves are comforted
by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).
In Jesus’ healing name we pray. Amen.
Read Mark 5:21-43; 2 Corinthians 1; 2 Corinthians 11:26-27.
