prayers for those suffering

Heavenly Father, for those I know who are suffering in mind, body, and spirit, 

or those whose children are suffering...

please strengthen them with your presence and the healing comfort of your Holy Spirit. 

May Your still, small voice bolster them in their fiery trial. 

As they lean on You when they reach the end of themselves, 

help those of us who are able and willing to lift them up
and support them in prayer and practicality, 

as Aaron and Hur did Abraham as he became weary during the battle. 

And as we ask why, help us to remember that Your ways and thoughts are above ours, 

but also that they cannot be recounted because they are innumerable. 

I make intercession, Risen Savior, for our dear ones, 

even as You do while sitting at the right hand of our Father.

Merciful God, You who know our limitations, may we know You in a deeper way.

Sustain us, that we may rejoice to partake of Christ's sufferings, 

"that when His glory is revealed, (we) may also be glad with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:13).

Right now, I know several sets of parents who are walking through a "dark night of the soul," the deep suffering of losing their young children into eternity by illness and birth defect. Several others who have already lost their grown children to the world and the devil. My heart hurts for the ones I know.

Eternity is made dearer by the suffering we experience here on Earth, even though sometimes it seems too much to bear. He is our great Shepherd.