A Prayer about Feeling Desperate in Illness

For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 2 Corinthians 1:8

Great Physician,

How grateful we are to know 

that you are “near to the brokenhearted” 

and “save the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). 

How grateful we are to know 

that you are also near to the broken-bodied 

and save those who are crushed in hope for health.

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.

We think of the Roman centurion 

who must have been terribly desperate 

to ask you, a Jew, for healing for his servant, 

who he said was “dreadfully tormented” (Matthew 8:6; 8:5-13). 

And we think of the apostle Paul, 

who asked (at least) three times 

that you would heal his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:8) 

and was told “no.” 

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. For as we share abundantly 

in Christ’s sufferings, 

so through Christ 

we share abundantly in comfort too…. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).

In the hope of ultimate healing in your name we pray. Amen.

Read Mark 5:21-43; 2 Corinthians 1; 2 Corinthians 11:26-27.