Prayer & healing
Prayer for the sick
Every remedy guide on this site begins with a prayer — not as decoration, but because we believe prayer is the first remedy, and every other remedy is a gift worth asking God to bless.
Our refuge in sickness as in health
When strength fails, most of us remember to pray. This page — and the little prayer card on every guide — is drawn from a chapter of The Ministry of Healing (1905) called “Prayer for the Sick,” which shaped how this whole site thinks about asking God for healing.
“And never does our merciful God turn from the soul that in sincerity seeks Him for help. He is our refuge in sickness as in health.”
“God is just as willing to restore the sick to health now as when the Holy Spirit spoke these words through the psalmist. And Christ is the same compassionate physician now that He was during His earthly ministry. In Him there is healing balm for every disease, restoring power for every infirmity.”
Through faith and prayer, that chapter says, even a sickroom can become a Bethel — a house of God. That is the spirit we hope a short prayer brings to an ordinary kitchen remedy.
What an honest prayer sounds like
The same chapter models a prayer for a sick person — bold in asking, and fully surrendered to God's wisdom. Every example prayer on this site is written in its spirit:
“Lord, thou knowest every secret of the soul. Thou art acquainted with these persons. Jesus, their Advocate, gave His life for them. His love for them is greater than ours can possibly be. If, therefore, it is for Thy glory and the good of the afflicted ones, we ask, in the name of Jesus, that they may be restored to health. If it be not Thy will that they may be restored, we ask that Thy grace may comfort and Thy presence sustain them in their sufferings.”
“Nevertheless not my will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42) was fitting on the lips of Jesus in Gethsemane — so our prayers, too, come as requests, never as demands. God hears; He also knows the end from the beginning, and He answers as a wise and loving Father.
Prayer and remedies belong together
Some fear that reaching for a remedy betrays a lack of faith. Scripture says otherwise: when King Hezekiah was healed, God prescribed a fig poultice (Isaiah 38:21); when Jesus healed a blind man, He used clay and the pool of Siloam (John 9:6-7). The chapter puts it plainly:
“Those who seek healing by prayer should not neglect to make use of the remedial agencies within their reach. It is not a denial of faith to use such remedies as God has provided to alleviate pain and to aid nature in her work of restoration.”
“When we have prayed for the recovery of the sick, we can work with all the more energy, thanking God that we have the privilege of co-operating with Him, and asking His blessing on the means which He Himself has provided.”
That is exactly what the prayer card on each guide invites: pray first, then use the simple means God has provided — and that includes the care of doctors and nurses. Praying for healing never replaces medical attention; it asks God's blessing on all of it.
A clean heart and honest habits
Prayer for health is a solemn thing. The chapter counsels that sin — including the quiet violation of the body's own laws — be confessed and forsaken, and that we not ask God to bless habits we refuse to change:
“It is labor lost to teach people to look to God as a healer of their infirmities, unless they are taught also to lay aside unhealthful practices. In order to receive His blessing in answer to prayer, they must cease to do evil and learn to do well.”
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed” (James 5:16). This is why our guides keep pointing back to causes and daily habits — the Path to Healing and the eight simple remedies of the NEWSTART lifestyle are part of the same prayer, lived out.
When healing doesn't come
We will not pretend otherwise: God does not heal every illness in this life, and that truth belongs on a site about remedies.
“There are cases where God works decidedly by His divine power in the restoration of health. But not all the sick are healed. Many are laid away to sleep in Jesus.”
“From this we see that if persons are not raised to health, they should not on this account be judged as wanting in faith.”
A delayed or different answer is not a verdict on your faith. God is, in that chapter's words, too wise and good to answer our prayers always at just the time and in just the manner we desire — and His grace is enough for the hard road, too.
🙏 How prayer works on RemedyRank
Every remedy guide now opens its practical section with a short example prayer and a verse from the King James Bible — each one thanking God for that particular gift, asking His blessing on its use, and submitting the outcome to His will. Ailment guides carry a general prayer for the sick. Pray it as written, or let it start a prayer in your own words.
Under each prayer is a small check: “I prayed over this.” It is a private bookmark between you and God — it is stored only on your own device, never sent to us, never counted, never shown to anyone. It is simply there so that prayer can be a habit, not an afterthought.
Quotations are from Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (1905), chapter 16, “Prayer for the Sick,” quoted verbatim from egwwritings.org. RemedyRank is educational only and never replaces professional medical care.