Healing Love

“I lay my hands upon you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, beseeching him to uphold you and fill you with grace, that you may know the healing power of his love.”*

This is a suggested prayer for The Laying on of Hands. The source of healing in this prayer is the power of Christ’s love, which heals us from the inside out.

I know a man with stage 4 cancer who has lived years beyond what the doctors predicted. He attributes his good fortune to medical treatments and the power of prayer. I know of another cancer patient who died knowing that God loved him deeply. I know of the chronically ill who wish to have their names remain on the prayer list.

Whenever a member of our congregation is suffering with a life-limiting or chronic illness, the women of our congregation make them a comfort quilt. Each comfort quilt is prayed over and blessed by the congregation. What a beautiful expression of the church’s calling to literally hold people in their prayers.

Healing takes many different forms, sometimes physical, sometimes spiritual, but at the heart of it is always the healing power of Christ’s love.

* Occasional Services: A Companion to Lutheran Book of Worship. Minneapolis: 1982, p. 100.

Merciful God, source of all healing, keep us in your love and heal us of all that harms us. Amen. — RF