Prayer for Healing

A prayer for healing, for yourself or for someone you love, with a word about what Christians actually mean when they pray for it — and three shorter prayers for the days when the long one is beyond you.

The prayer

Lord Jesus, healer of the sick, I bring You this body and this illness. You touched the leper, You raised the child, You stopped to ask a blind man what he wanted — nothing here is beneath Your attention. Where healing can come, bring it. Where it comes slowly, give patience for the waiting and skill to the hands treating me. Where the answer is not yet, or not this, hold me anyway. Take the fear that runs ahead of the diagnosis. Give rest at night, courage in the morning, and a mind that is not swallowed by this. I ask boldly, and I trust You with the answer. Amen.

History & tradition

Prayer for the sick is one of the oldest Christian practices and one of the few the New Testament gives explicit instructions for: 'Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him' (James 5:14). The anointing of the sick grew from that verse and is still practised across Catholic, Orthodox and many Protestant churches. What the Church has never taught is that healing is owed on demand — Paul asked three times for his own thorn to be removed and was answered with grace instead.

When to pray it

Pray this at the start of a hard day, before a treatment, or in the small hours when the worry arrives. If you are praying for someone else, say their name aloud. If you are the one who is ill and cannot manage the words, let someone else pray them over you — that is what the elders in James are for.

Three short alternatives

One line, on repeat

'Lord, have mercy.' It is the oldest prayer in the Church and it needs no strength to pray. Say it on the out-breath until you can manage something longer.

Psalm 103:2-3 as prayer

'Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.' Pray it as remembering rather than asking — it steadies the asking that follows.

For someone else

'Lord, You know their name and their body better than any scan. Be with them tonight, and with those caring for them. Give the doctors clear sight and steady hands. Amen.'

Pair it with daily practice

Pair this with our verses about healing and verses for the sick. Quiethaven's prayer timer holds five quiet minutes for you when you have none of your own, and you can ask others to pray on the prayer wall.

"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him." — James 5:14 (KJV)

Other prayers

• Morning Prayer
• Evening Prayer
• The Serenity Prayer
• The Jesus Prayer
• Prayer for Anxiety
• Prayer for Strength
• Prayer for Protection
• Prayer Before Surgery
• Night Prayer
• Prayer Before Meals
• The Prayer of St Francis
• The Apostles' Creed
• The Hail Mary
• Prayer for Guidance