How To Pray For Healing For A Friend

Healing is one prayer request or need that we pray for at several points in our lives. Just as we experience circumstances in which we need healing, some of our friends do as well. In those times, we are not just to be there for them and carry their burdens with them (Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2) but also pray for them. That is the essence of being in a church community—you have fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who will be with you and pray for you and your well-being, including your healing.

Father in heaven, stir up compassion in me so I may show love and compassion for my friend that needs healing. Give me the grace to always remember him/her in my prayers. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

 

What Can You Pray for a Friend’s Healing?

When we pray for healing for a friend, we do not pray just for physical healing from a particular sickness or disease. Yes, if they are sick, we surely pray for healing; however, there are other aspects of life as well. Depending on what your friend is going through, he or she might need a different sort of healing. For example, he or she may have gone through something emotionally devastating. His or her partner might have cheated, he may have emotional wounds from a family member, he might have been betrayed by some friends or experienced verbal abuse, and he may have experienced other scenarios that could have hurt him or her emotionally. In that case, the healing that your friend needs is emotional healing.

While emotional healing usually overlaps with mental healing, there are other situations where what your friend needs is mental healing. For example, his or her anxieties may be extremely high for some reason. Sometimes, these anxieties are already irrational, while other times, they are connected to the emotional hurts or traumas that a person has experienced in the past. It could also be a connection between a person’s mental and biological aspects. Regardless, there is a mental concern from which a friend might need healing.

Spiritual healing is another aspect of a person, and this is the most important of all. This is where the truth of the Gospel comes in. Everything that we need healing from is an effect of sin. We are hurt and devastated, both emotionally and mentally, because of the sin of others and because of sin in the world. What was once a perfect world was corrupted by sin when Adam and Eve fell (Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Romans 5:12). In fact, the most important sickness that we have spiritually is our sin. No amount of good works can ever save us from the bondage of sin because our heart is sinful at its core (Matthew 15:18-20, Romans 3:9-20). Therefore, we can never pass God’s standard of righteousness, and so we are separated from Him and doomed to eternal death in hell.

However, Christ changes everything. Christ came to live the life we should have lived, and He died the death we should have died. In other words, He paid the penalty for our sins and lived the kind of life God required of us. When He died for our sins, He didn’t stay dead. We have a risen Lord and Savior, proving that, indeed, He is the Son of God and that He conquered death. His work of dying for our sins so that in Him we may have eternal life and forgiveness is valid. Therefore, anyone who believes in the work of Christ is saved. He solves our spiritual problem of being separated from God (Ephesians 2:14-16). We are made holy and righteous in the eyes of God, not because of our works but because of the righteousness of Christ.

It is also when Christ calls us, His sheep, that we are transformed. In Christ, we become a new creation—the old us is gone, and the new us has come (Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17). Remember our sin problem, from which we need healing? Our problem is our heart, which only desires sin. However, those who are in Christ have a new heart, one that is not made out of stone and hardened by sin but one that is turned into flesh. It is soft and responsive to God and desires to honor and glorify Him (A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26). That does not mean we don’t sin anymore. However, we can see the change of direction in our lives. If, before, we didn’t care if we sinned, now we hate sin because we want to honor God. That itself is already evidence of a changed heart.

 

Our spiritual healing in Christ affects even the emotional, mental, and physical aspects of our lives. If we have a thousand emotional, mental, and physical problems, Christ has a thousand solutions for all of those. Do we feel rejected, betrayed, and emotionally wounded in Christ? We find gentleness, satisfaction, love, and comfort in Him that tend to our emotional wounds. Are we always worried that our minds are on the brink of shutting down because we can’t take our anxieties anymore? Christ is the One Who holds all things together. He has given us our peace. Christ is the sovereign ruler over everything, even the anxieties, and scenarios we fear, and this should comfort us against the uncertain future. No matter the wound or infirmity – whether emotional, mental, physical, or spiritual – they all find their healing in Christ.

How Can I Pray for Healing for a Friend?

You can pray for healing for a friend by first knowing in what specific aspect of his or her life he or she needs healing. Is your friend sick? Then pray for healing for him or her and lift those prayer requests to God (Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7). Is your friend going through some emotional wounds? Then pray for emotional healing upon your friend and the comfort and healing that he or she can find in Christ. If it is mental healing that’s needed, the same principle applies. In other words, ask or know what kind of healing your friend needs and pray for healing, the grace of God in Christ upon your friend, and that he or she will always look to Christ, Who is the solution to everything.

Father in heaven, I pray for my friend, who is currently going through emotional hurts and pains. I pray that You will bring healing and comfort to him. Remind him that You are with him in this season of his life. Bind up his wounds and cause him to be emotionally and mentally whole, for He is complete and secured in Christ. May He find grace, mercy, and tenderness in Christ this season and see how Christ is more than enough despite his hurts. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

If your friend is not yet a Christian, then the most important thing you can pray for them is not healing but for him or her to come to know Christ. As mentioned above, Christ is the ultimate solution for whatever hurts we have in life – emotional, mental, physical, or spiritual – from which we need healing. Your friend will only experience the goodness and grace of God if he or she is in Christ. Therefore, preach the Gospel to your friend and pray that he or she will repent and believe it.