When Sickness Spreads

God Our Dwelling Place,pestilence is stalking in darkness;a plague is approaching our tent.It comes near, it surrounds like a massive armywhose might we cannot match;whose attacks we can’t anticipate;whose invisible weapons we can’t outmaneuver.Come, Our Deliverer, come to our aid.

God Our Refuge,bring under the shadow of your wingsthose who have lost loved onesto this disease.Give them the enduring comfort of good newsof forgiveness and eternal lifein the face of this terribly bad newsof corruption and death.Be a refuge, a fortress, a friendfor the sick who have been quarantined,separated from their support systems.

Give doctors and public health officialsskill for healing, communication, and containment.Strengthen them for a bitter fightagainst an unseen foeand tend to their complex grief.Bless the work of scientists and biomedical engineersracing to find new methods of protection.And shower the public with steadying grace,healing, protecting, and renewing the worldthrough your Wordby the power of your Spirit.

God Who Holds Us Fast in Love,fortify your people to walk in faith and wisdom,compelled by neighbor love to serve the sickinstead of cowering in fear.Imitating the compassionate, healing care of Jesus,give us courage to move toward the weak and dying,confident that God has already delivered usfrom the power of our most chronic and ruinous diseaseand from death itself.

Even as we face this illness’s crippling blows,train our eyes on the things that are unseen—on the coming glory of resurrection lifeand joy that far outweighs today’s sorrows.Then—and even now—you will satisfy us with long lifeand show us your salvation.

Amen