Lord, I bring before you a pain that takes away my strength and pushes me to the edge of my abilities. If ever you are close to me, it is now. I can experience at least a little of what You experienced on the cross when You gave your life for me to be free.
I realize that the pain was not foreign to You. You are God, but because You were also a man, You were not spared pain. Thank You for enduring that pain to understand me and my pain better, and thank You for granting me the knowledge that this is how much You love me.
I want to build on the words Paul wrote to the Romans during their physical suffering and open myself to the hope that comes from God’s hand:
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“And if (we are) children, then heirs: heirs of God, and fellow co-heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Romans 8:17-18
I give You each trial separately, and I ask You to help me recognize the meaning in all this. Lord, protect me, that this bodily discomfort will not become an entry point for self-pity or other thoughts that would distance me from You.
May this ordeal create in me a fertile land in which patience and mercy for myself and for others may grow. I especially pray that my own suffering will help me grow in love for and understand those who are sick and deal with pain as a part of their everyday lives.
Lord, may I rest in this pain and suffering in You and in Your presence. Like Paul, you comfort and strengthen me:
‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in my weakness.’
2 Corinthians 12:9
As the apostle Paul asked, I ask you myself:
“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:10
Lord, surround me with sympathetic neighbors, as Job’s neighbors were sympathetic to him in his dark days:
“They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very great.”
Job 2:13
Lord, I want you to enter into this pain of mine and fulfill your promise:
“And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelations 21:4
Thank you, Lord, for being merciful to me and for comforting me in my moments of weakness.
Thank you for touching me with your gentle touch and acknowledging me with your loving gaze.
Amen.
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