Pain Relief Prayer for Physical Pain

Use this physical pain relief prayer to receive God’s help when you are enduring pain. Physical pain can affect your body, mind and spirit, including your energy and your ability to work and think. It affects your mood, your outlook and makes you feel alone and isolated. For these reasons, prayer is essential when you are in physical pain.

Warning: Please contact a medical professional if you are experiencing new or worsening pain. Pain can be an indication of life-threatening conditions. God created pain to warn us that something is wrong.

Physical Pain Relief Prayer

Dear Great Physician,

I am in physical pain.

I am powerless against it.

I cry out for help.

I am desperate for relief.

Guide me. Show me the things to do to find relief. Heal me. Give me rest.

Remind me that although no one else can see or feel my pain, you do. I hold onto the belief that although this pain is mine alone, I am not alone because you are with me.

When I am too overwhelmed by pain to pray, assign others to pray for me. May I feel their prayers lifting me up and carrying me through my worst hours and days.

I claim your promises from the Bible over my pain. “I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me.” Psalm 69:29

I am comforted knowing that Jesus understands my suffering because he endured terrible physical pain on the cross. Yet his suffering was not wasted, because it bought my redemption and the redemption of the whole world.

Relieve my pain. Redeem my suffering. Restore my life. And in the meantime if I suffer, I put my hope in you believing that my pain will diminish and I will once again live freely in the fullness of your beautiful plans for my life.

Amen.

Using prayer to alleviate physical pain

Physical pain is a universal human problem. In fact, physical pain is one of the top reasons that people seek medical help. 1 in 5 of us live in chronic pain, which is defined as pain that lasts more than 3 months. And 8% of us have debilitating pain that limits our ability to work and do normal life activities.

Although we never welcome pain, it is part of our physical warning system that tells us that something is wrong. It’s why we instinctively pull our hand away immediately when we touch something hot that might injure us.

Throughout history, people have used prayer as a way to manage, lessen and relieve both physical and mental pain.

An article by Steven Richmeir MD entitled “Prayer as a component of managing chronic pain” reports that out of 1,204 people polled about physical pain over 50% say they use prayer as a means of dealing with pain. And the vast majority said that it worked well or very well. And other studies back this up.

Here are some of the ways to use prayer to alleviates pain.

Prayer alleviates pain through guidance.

Because prayer is interactive, we can ask for and receive guidance about something we might try or do that would lead to healing and the relief of our pain. This helps us to seek and use proven medical pain relief practices together with prayer.

Prayer helps pain through catharsis.

Prayer allows us to honestly express our pain to God knowing that he understands, he’s listening and he cares. People in the Bible often cried out to God in pain, like Job did when he said, “For sighing comes to me instead of food; my groans pour out like water.” (Job 3:24 NIV)

Prayer aids and enables healing.

We are encouraged in the Bible to pray for healing. There is a limit to what medical science can do for us. After treatments have been given, healing must take its own unique course based on complex factors that involve body, mind and spirit.

In the Bible, God says of himself, “I am the Lord who heals.” (Exodus 15:26) This is one of the Biblical names of God, “Jehovah-rapha.”

The Bible says that “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” Matt. 4:23

Prayer gives endurance.

Although God heals, it is not always in the way we think. Often when pain is unavoidable, the grace God enables us to endure. James tells us in the Bible “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:4)

The Psalmist tells us, “The Lord will sustain him on his sick bed and restore him from his bed of illness“ Psalm 41:3

Prayer changes our focus.

When we pray, we enter a spiritual dimension where we focus on God and not on our present circumstances. We remember God’s love, presence, promises and majesty. Changing focus is a proven psychological mechanism to alleviate worry and distress.

Prayer helps us dwell on the positive.

Praise and thanksgiving are parts of prayer that help us become more positive. The Bible says, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think of such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

Prayer connects us with others and God.

When we are in pain, having others pray for us or with us adds a powerful dimension because it helps us feel connected to others and to God. When Jesus healed people, he often touched them. In the Bible in the book of James we are told to call together leaders of the church to anoint the sick person with oil and pray for them. (James 5:14)

Even Jesus himself needed the added power of others praying with him when he was in great anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane facing a painful death. (See Luke 22:39-46)

Prayer can make pain productive

If we think that our pain may later produce something good, it is easier to endure. The Bible tells us that “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come, but when her baby is born, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.” John 16:21

Obviously not all pain is productive, but all pain is connective, connecting our hearts to others in pain. Many people use pain as a time to “share in” the sufferings of Christ that enables them to pray with new power for others. Read more about this here:

Intercessory Prayer – Praying Your Pain with Christ’s – Prayer Ideas

Prayer can be used to claim God’s promises and have hope

Here are some samples of Bible verses to pray during pain.

Pain will be no more

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain; for the old order of things has passed away. Rev. 21:4

God is our salvation during pain

I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me. Psalm 69:29

God hears our prayers about pain

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. I Chron 4:10

Jesus heals those who suffer

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralzyed and in terrible suffering.” Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.” Matt. 8:5-7

Jesus understands pain because he experienced it himself

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering…Surely he took our pain and bore our sufferings…but he was pierced for our transgressions…and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:3-5 selected phrases.

God hears us

But when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel – each one aware of his afflictions and pains, and spreading out his hands toward this temple – then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. 2 Chronicles 6:29,30

Use prayer so God can guide you to good treatment

The following is a brief outline of the types and treatments for physical pain. Prayerfully conside these and ask God to guide you to the best treatment for your pain.

Consider the reason you are experiencing pain.

Doctors tell us that there are different reasons for physical pain. They include:

Tissue injury pain, like after surgery or because of a fall

Inflammatory pain caused by immune responses

Nerve pain

“Functional pain” that happens with no obvious cause

Try to accurately describe your pain to your doctor. Do you remember when it started and what seemed to cause it? Where is it hurting? Is it radiating pain? On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being excruciating pain, how intense is it? Is there a time of day when it typically happens or worsens? Describe the sensation: throbbing, stabbing, sharp, dull etc.

Ask God about how to best relieve your pain

There are a variety of things that can bring relief to pain.

Medical treatments such as various pain-relieving drugs which can be either bought over the counter or stronger ones prescribed by a doctor. Medical procedures sometimes are indicated, such as surgery or nerve blocks.

Compresses such as cold or hot compresses.

Physical approaches such as therapeutic massage or physical therapy.

Exercise such as walking, stretching, strengthening.

Soothing approaches, such as music and meditation

Advice for Living with physical pain from Letitia who lives with health challenges

I asked a friend Letitia Barnes, one of our Prayerideas.org writers, if she had any advice on how to endure physical pain. Letitia has suffered from a number of painful health issues over the years and is currently writing down her experiences for those who suffer from chronic pain. Here are the affirmations she lives by found in Psalm 139:

No matter where I go or what I face God is with me.

“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me…where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there…even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” (Vs. 1,8,10)

God knew me when I was being formed and I am a part of His marvelous works.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well…All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (vs.13,14,16)

God slays my enemies. The day will come when God will free me from the infirmities that I endure in this fallen world. Some things God takes away now in this world and others He will take away later. It is all done in His time.

If only you would slay the wicked, O God!…search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Vs. 19, 23,24