A special prayer for healing and hope
The past year has been particularly rough for my community. More than a dozen people of all ages have passed away, many of them due to car accidents and unexpected medical events. There are about five thousand people in my small New Hampshire town, so everyone has been touched in some way by these deaths. If you didn’t know someone who died, you knew someone who was close to them.
Last Saturday, the community church held a special service for healing and reflection. I was asked to write and read a prayer focused on hope and healing, and I wanted to share it here for anyone else who is in need of comfort and the reassurance of God’s love and presence. All Bible verses are from the NIV translation.
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Father God, we thank you for Your steadfast love and for Your constant presence in our lives. Even when life is difficult and we don’t understand what’s going on, You are there, guiding us through our grief and our confusion. As it says in Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
We come to You, LORD, with the confidence that You are able to heal any hurts we have experienced, whether it is illness, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or other forms of heartache, grief, or disappointment. As it says in Psalm 147:3, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
We ask for Your healing touch in our lives and in the lives of all who are grieving, who are sick, who are hurt, who are confused. We thank You that You are attentive to our suffering and that You hear the cries of our hearts for healing. As it says in Psalm 10:17–18, “You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed.”
We thank you so much, LORD, for the reality that even though our lives and our circumstances may change, You are forever reliable, forever the same. Like it says in Isaiah 54:10, “‘Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”
May we always rest in the certainty of Your unfailing, unchanging love. As it says in Romans 8:38–39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
– Teresa Santoski
