SkiesPrayer
A prayer for healing
Words to bring sickness, pain and waiting to God, for yourself or for someone you love.
Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.
Jeremiah 17:14
The Bible invites us to ask God for healing: “Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed” (Jeremiah 17:14), and to pray for one another (James 5:16). A prayer for healing brings the illness to God honestly, asks for his help through rest, doctors and care, and trusts him with what we cannot control.
Pray
Lord Jesus, you touched the sick and they were made well. I bring you [name / myself] and this sickness. You know the pain, the fear and the long nights.
Please heal. Give strength to the body, rest to the mind, and wisdom and skill to every doctor and nurse. Where healing is slow, give patience. Where it does not come as we hope, hold us close and do not let us go.
I trust you with what I cannot carry. Amen.
When healing is slow
Faithful people have prayed for healing and waited, sometimes for a long time. The psalms are full of honest complaint (“How long, O LORD?”), and God does not turn away from it. Keep praying, keep asking others to pray with you, and keep going to the doctor: prayer and medical care belong together.
If you are caring for someone who is ill, pray for yourself too. Caregivers need rest and help as well.
Scripture behind this prayer
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.
James 5:14–16
A psalm of thanks that remembers all God has done.
Bless the LORD, O my soul; all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His kind deeds— He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit and crowns you with loving devotion and compassion, who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psalm 103:1–5
Questions people ask
What does the Bible say about praying for healing?
It invites us to ask: “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him” (James 5:14), and “pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). It also shows people who kept trusting God when relief did not come as they asked, like Paul with his unnamed “thorn” (2 Corinthians 12:7–9).
Can I pray for someone else’s healing?
Yes. Put their name in the prayer, and if you can, tell them you are praying. Praying for one another is exactly what James 5 describes.
