Today, we are lifting up young adults who are living with a disability in prayer. Whether it's you, someone you love, or someone who lives in your community who struggles with a debilitating illness, reading these words may help or equip you to pray for the daily struggle that long-term, incurable illness entails. At 37, I still struggle, myself, with symptoms that began when I was 18. It’s been a long two decades medically. I hate using the word disability to define myself. I do not consider myself disabled, but differently abled. Many sympathize with the daily journey through disabilities, some of which are visible, and others that loom under the surface. God knows every page of our story, and the pain we experience. Let's pray today for those who are suffering here on earth with an incurable disability or disease.
Photo Credit: Image created using ChatGPT2025
1. A Prayer for Mental Health
Maybe you struggle like me with your mental health. I always return to one simple verse when my mind is way off. It’s found in the Psalms, which reads:
“When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” - Psalms 61:2
But maybe you, like me, know that’s not always easy, so I pray.
Father God,
Thank you for being a firm and secure rock where I can place my feet. Thank you for being accessible to me even in my disability, when more often than not even simple amenities can be inaccessible. Thank you for being a God who doesn’t just give us a map to find you, but you sent the Holy Spirit to be our personal tour guide to get from where we are in our frustration and confusion, guilt and annoyance, impatience and anger to where you are in peace and joy. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you guide me graciously and you take me to the one who loves me most, my father in heaven.
Today, as I am overwhelmed, Holy Spirit, would you lead me once again to the Rock?
In Jesus name
Amen.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Christopher Ott
2. A Prayer for Physical Healing
There are many days when my physical pain is so hard to bear. It stabs at my joints, causes cramps in my muscles, and relief feels far off.
On those days, I feel most like our friend Job. Job cried in Job chapter 7:
“And so, I cry out to you, in agony and distress.” It is in those words I can hear myself say to God, “Why God?”
When I am unhealed after prayer ministry, or I am in significant pain, I am crying out to God, just like our friend Job. We often ask ourselves and each other, “How can bad things happen to good people?” but as Job rightly declares in Job 9, “What you say is true. No human is innocent in the sight of God. Not once in a thousand times could we win our case if we took him to court.” It is echoed again in the New Testament, where we read the words, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3). None of us is good, but the pain is often unbearable, and so we can pray:
Dear Father,
I know you are good, I know you only do good things, but I am struggling today to see the good in these aches and pains that hound my body and frustrate my mind. I am struggling to see worth in this. I am going to be bold and ask for healing again.
But I am also going to ask that if you choose not to heal me for whatever plan or purpose you understand that I do not, that you would pour out grace for me in this season. That you would put the right doctors in my path to help me, the right nurses who will understand and assist me in seeking medical help and aids where required.
Remind me, God, in those moments of pain, the words of Job 19:
“I know that my Saviour lives, and at the end he will stand on this earth. My flesh may be destroyed, yet from this body I will see God. Yes, I will see him for myself.” One day, all of this will be a distant memory, and I will be present with you, pain-free!
In Jesus Name
Amen.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/ Aravind Gopinath
3. A Prayer for Battling Fatigue
There are mental and physical aspects of illness and disability, but there is also a lot of fatigue that comes alongside it. Hands up if you know how debilitating fatigue can be! It's not just something that affects what we can do but our focus, our ability to make decisions, and our response times – it hits a lot of things, and sleep does not make it better. When I am fatigued, I recall the verses found in Matthew 11:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
I know there is so much more to this verse, but it reminds me that God is the source of my life. He is the one on whom I can lean, and He will help me even in fatigue so I pray:
Father God,
In the midst of the fatigue that is taking over my life, I am calling to you, the source of all I need. As Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not I shall not want,” and so in you today I am coming to find rest, strength, energy, and focus. Would you help me today to refocus on what needs to be done?
In Jesus Name
Amen.
There are many other times when I need God's help. I need him to help me when I feel like a burden and when plans change because I am not well enough to go. I need him to pour grace into my soul and help me remember my friends love me even when I must cancel last minute because I am not well enough to go. I have to ask God to restore my perspective when I allow annoyance at the sometimes ableist society we live in. I have to ask him to help me voice concerns for the disabled community in a clear, concise, loving way to see action taken and a more available space made welcome for all.
There are many times and moments when I need God to renew my mind, increase my grace, build my faith, and help me see this life from his perspective. But at the end of the day, Psalm 73:26 helps me to remember that this old body is going to be renewed one day; it reads:
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Ah, my friend, the Lord is my strength and your strength, and He will be our portion, not just for today, but for every day from now until eternity and longer. These days can be hard, and they are, but focusing on the Lord reminds me that this life is a vapor. Soon, I will know the presence of God, the perfect body, a pain-free, properly functioning nervous system, and no tears or sorrow. Death will be a memory, and that is a hope, an anchor that I hold on to.
I hope something in this has helped you.
God Bless
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/fizkes
Originally published Tuesday, 08 April 2025.