Dear God, our Center received two prayer requests from patients today, and I want to focus on them this morning instead of figuring out where I will go next since I finished Genesis yesterday.

The first one is from a woman who has been to our clinic a few times. She has a hurt knee, for which she needs your healing, but she also asks for prayer for her family, including for “my husband to stop using drugs.” Her prayer broke my heart because it is one thing to face the frustrations of physical pain, money, etc., but it is another thing to be in a situation with a family member where you feel like they are out of control and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Some will ask why she doesn’t just leave him, but it is likely that she cannot afford to leave him. She needs your help. He needs your help. She doesn’t mention children, but if they have children then they need your help. Please be with this woman and her knee. Lead her to healing, whether you provide it through us or your Spirit just moves through her body and heals her supernaturally, provide for her healing. Relieve her pain and help her to be able to fully work. And then I pray for her husband, her, and her family, and how they all interact. It is hard to know how you can help them, but I pray that you will be able to be there for him. Make him the man you need him to be. Help him to turn loose of drugs and other things that he thinks can provide a peace and joy that only you can truly provide. Help him to be at peace, and use this entire situation as an opportunity for him to find you and then bring glory to your name through his life’s transformation.

The second one was from a man who, coincidentally, is recovering from alcohol/drug addiction. His prayer request is for “balance in [his] life with work and personal growth.” He is having trouble because he cannot make enough per hour to make ends meet for his family. He says he doesn’t want to work 60-80 hours per week because that tends to get him out of balance. Frankly, God, with the way the economy is going, there is a faithless part of me that doesn’t know if you can answer this one, but the truth is that I know you can. I know you can help this man in his recovery and you can provide for his family’s needs. He also asks for prayers for his kids. So I do, God. I pray for this man’s recovery, that it will continue and that he will be strong in you. I pray for his job, that you will somehow multiply his income like Jesus did the fishes and loaves. I pray that you will love and parent his children through him and through their mother. Like the other family, use this as an opportunity to show up in their lives and reverse what could be generations of curses and vices that have passed down. Encourage this man. Give him hope. Give him your peace. Help him to bask in the middle of your presence.