A Method for Prayer01 Matthew Henry (continued)
When our Lord Jesus was here upon earth, we find that they brought to him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and he healed all manner of sickness and all manner ofdisease among the people: And he hath still the same power over bodily diseases that ever he had; he saith to them, Go, and they go;
Come, and they come; Do this, and they do it; and can speak the word, and they shall be healed. And he is still touched with the feeling of our infirmities; In the beliefof this, we do by prayer bring our friends that are sick and lay them before him. Matthew 4:24,
23. Matthew 8:9, 8. Hebrews 4:15. Luke 5:18.
Lord, grant that those who are sick may neither despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when they are rebuked of him, but that they may both hear the rod, and him that has appointed it, and may kiss the rod, and accept of the punishment of their iniquity. Hebrews 12:5. Micah 6:9. Leviticus 26:41.
Give them to see that affliction cometh not forth out of the dust, nor springs out of the ground, that they may therefore seek unto
God, to the Lord more than to the physicians, because unto God the Lord belong the issues of life and death. Job 5:6, 8.
2 Chronicles 16:12. Psalm 68:20.
Lord, shew them wherefore you contend with them, and give them in their affliction to humble themselves greatly before the God of their fathers, and to repent and turn from every evil way, and make their ways and their doings good, that being judged and chastened of the Lord, they may not be condemned with the world. By the sickness of the body, and the sadness of the countenance let the heart be made better. Job 10:2. 2 Chronicles 33:12. Jeremiah 18:11. 1
Corinthians 11:32. Ecclesiastes 7.3.
O Lord, rebuke them not in your anger, neither chasten them in your hot displeasure: Have mercy upon them, O Lord, for they are weak: Lord heal them, for their bones are vexed, their souls also are sore vexed: Return, O Lord, and deliver their souls, save them for your mercy's sake; and lay no more upon them than you will enable them to bear, and enable them to bear what you dost lay upon them.
Psalm 6-1-4. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
When you with rebukes dost chasten man for sin, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth; surely every man is vanity. But remove your stroke, we pray you, from those that are even consumed by the blow of your hand: O spare a little, that they may recover strength before they go hence and be no more. Psalm 39:11,
Those that are chastened with pain upon their bed, and the multitude of their bones with strong pain, so that their life abhors bread, and their soul dainty meat, shew them your uprightness, be gracious to them. Deliver them from going down to the pit, for you have found a ransom. Job 33:19, 20, 23, 24.
Let the eternal God be their refuge, and underneath them be the everlasting arms; Consider their frame, remember that they are but dust. Deuteronomy 33:27. Psalm 103:14.
O deliver those that are yours in the time oftrouble, preserve them and keep them alive: O strengthen them upon their bed of languishing, and make all their bed in their sickness: Be merciful to them, and heal their souls, for they have sinned. Psalm 41:1-4.
O turn to them and have mercy upon them, bring them out of their distresses; look upon their affliction and their pain, but especially forgive all their sin. Psalm 25:16, 17, 18.
Make your face to shine upon them, save them for your mercy's sake: The God that comforts them that are cast down, comfort them; and let the soul dwell at ease in you, when the body lies in pain. Psalm 31:16. 2 Corinthians 7:6. Psalm 25:13.
(Ifit be the beginning ofa distemper) Lord, set bounds to this sickness, and say, Hitherto it shall come, and no further: Let it not prevail to extremity, but in measure when it shoots forth do you debate, and stay your rough wind in the day of your east wind; and by this let iniquity be purged, and let this be all the fruit, even the taking away of sin. Job 38:11. Isaiah 27:8, 9.
(Ifit have continued long) Lord, let patience have its perfect work, even unto long-suffering, that those who have been long in the furnace may continue hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord:
Let tribulation work patience, and patience experience, and experience a hope that makes not ashamed; and enable them to call even this affliction light and but for a moment, seeing it to work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. James 1:4. Lamentations 3:26. Romans 5:3,