A Prayer for Chronic Pain

Father, the pain is here again, the way it is here every morning, a low fire that never fully goes out, threading through my back and joints before my feet even touch the floor. I am so tired of being tired of it.

I confess there are days I have stopped asking to be healed because hoping and being disappointed hurts almost as much as the body does. I have learned to brace, to ration my energy, to smile so people stop asking how I am.

But You see what the smile covers. You know every nerve that flares and every plan I have quietly let go. So I bring You the part of me that is worn thin, not pretending I am fine.

Give me relief where You can, and where the pain remains, give me a grace large enough to carry it. Let Your strength show up most clearly in this weakness I cannot fix.

You told one who begged for relief that Your grace was enough, that Your power is perfected in weakness. Let that be true in my body too, not as a slogan but as something I can actually feel.

I will not let this pain have the last word over my joy. Walk this long road with me, one slow step at a time. Amen.