A Prayer for Healing
For your own body, or for someone whose name you have been saying for months. This page is encouragement, not medical advice — keep your doctors close.
Scripture invites you to ask for healing plainly. Psalm 30:2 — “O LORD my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me” — and James 5:14-15 tells the sick to call for prayer, without treating the request as presumptuous.
O LORD my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me.
Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
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.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
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,
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.”
The prayer
Lord, You know exactly what is wrong. The part that has a name and a diagnosis, and the part I cannot put into words.
I am asking plainly, because You have never treated that as too bold: heal this. Heal it fully. Let me see it.
Give skill to the hands treating me, and wisdom to the people deciding what comes next. Steady the ones who love me and are frightened.
And if Your answer is the slower one — if this is a road rather than a door — then be the strength of my heart while my body is not strong. Keep me from bitterness. Keep me from despair. Let me not waste this waiting.
I am in Your hands either way. Amen.
Asking without bargaining
There is no formula here, and no threshold of faith to clear. Jesus asked a blind man what he wanted Him to do (Mark 10:51) — He invited the specific request. Ask specifically.
And know that a plain request is not a bargain. You are not promising God something in exchange, and you have not broken a contract if the answer is different from the one you wanted.
When the answer has not been yes
Paul asked three times for a thorn to be removed. The answer was “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). He remained faithful and remained afflicted, and the New Testament records both without embarrassment.
If someone has suggested your body has not healed because your faith is too small, that is not Scripture’s voice. You are allowed to set it down.
Where these words come from
Psalm 30:2 and Jeremiah 17:14 are direct requests for healing. Psalm 147:3 holds broken hearts and bound wounds in one line. James 5:14-15 makes asking a normal part of church life, and Psalm 73:26 is honest about a body that fails while God does not.
Praying this for someone specific?
Light a candle for her — and come back to tend it tomorrow.