A Prayer about Lamenting Chronic Illness

For he has not despised or scorned

    the suffering of the afflicted one;

he has not hidden his face from him

    but has listened to his cry for help. Psalm 22:24

Good Father,

Today we lift up our friends 

who have searched and searched and searched,

 who have waited and waited and waited

…for health, for wholeness, for healing. 

We join in their lament 

using the words of David:

“My God, my God, 

why have you forsaken me? 

Why are you so far from saving me?”

[Don’t you hear my groaning?]

“O my God, I cry by day, 

but you do not answer, 

and by night, but I find no rest” (Ps. 22:2).

How we thank you, Heavenly Father, 

that you have given voice to our lament 

in your Word.

As David names his grief to you, 

he remembers his reason to trust in you, 

and he asks boldly and persistently for help. 

We join him on behalf of all of our friends 

who have suffered for years:

“In you our ancestors put their trust;

    they trusted and you delivered them”

(Ps. 22:4).

“Be not far from me, for trouble is near, 

and there is none to help”

(Ps. 22:11).

As we raise our cry for help, 

may we remember that you are the good Father, 

and may we join with David in praising you, 

for we have even more reason to hope: 

your Son, our Savior was forsaken on the cross 

that we might be forgiven, 

that we might one day live with you 

in eternal glory, 

in whole and healed bodies forever and ever. 

Read Psalm 22.