Dr. David Lowe is a pediatrician practicing in Camarillo, California. He and his wife, Flo, recently served for four weeks as a physician-nurse team in Thailand, near the Cambodian border. Seventh-day Adventist World Services (SAWS), at the request of the United Nations and the International Red Cross, is supplying emergency teams to serve the medical needs of thousands of refugees. These teams serve for short periods, usually four to eight weeks, on a rotating basis. This prayer was offered by Dr. Lowe for his congregation in Camarillo, California, the Sabbath morning before he and his wife left for Bangkok. So moved were members by this sincere prayer that many have asked whether it couldn't be shared with the larger church family.

Heavenly Father,

We come to You as patients afflicted with the illness of sin.

We know You, the Great Physician, are the only one able to heal us and make us well.

Despite the false accusations by Your enemy that You are not very qualified to practice medicine, You have patiently demonstrated through the ages Your trustworthiness and Your righteousness, Your love and Your unconditional acceptance of all of us, no matter how sick we are.

Some of us are unwilling to accept the diagnosis of our condition of sin and are not seeing the ultimate consequences of this disease.

Some don't trust You fully and are trying to heal themselves by their own home remedies.

Some think they need not take time to come in regularly to see You in order to become well and to be kept well. They feel they need to come in just for the little emergencies here and there so You can relieve their pain; they let You treat the symptoms, but do not allow You to heal the underlying illness. Some are unwilling to allow You to do the necessary treatments to eradicate this disease and restore healing.

They are unwilling to undergo the necessary surgery and refuse to take the medicine, especially that which seems bitter to the taste.

We thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who came and showed us Your character—showed us how trustworthy You are.

He showed us what it is like to be fully healthy.

He showed us what the terrible con sequences of our illness would be—that if we persist in neglecting to undergo the necessary treatment, we would be terminal, and You would sorrowfully have to let us die.

We see how capable You have been in treating other patients in the past.

Mary Magdalene.

David.

And Saul of Tarsus.

We see that You care. That You are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all days of the year.

We see that You are willing to come into our homes, to make house calls.

And so we want to affirm our trust in You this morning, Father—Master Physician—realizing that if we trust You, You can heal any kind of illness.

We know that in doing this, there will be some things we'll have to do.

We will have to take the medicine that You prescribe for us.

We will have to undergo surgery to remove some of the things that may impair our healing.

We will have to eat a healthy diet of Your Word every day.

We will have to breathe deeply of the fresh air of the Holy Spirit.

We will have to exercise our faith.

We will have to encourage and help others, rather than condemning and judging our brothers and sisters, who are also ill.

We will have to trust in You more fully.

And bask in the sunshine of Your love.

We thank You for this free gift of healing—of salvation—attested to by Your Son, Jesus Christ.

AMEN.


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Dr. David Lowe is a pediatrician practicing in Camarillo, California. He and his wife, Flo, recently served for four weeks as a physician-nurse team in Thailand, near the Cambodian border. Seventh-day Adventist World Services (SAWS), at the request of the United Nations and the International Red Cross, is supplying emergency teams to serve the medical needs of thousands of refugees. These teams serve for short periods, usually four to eight weeks, on a rotating basis. This prayer was offered by Dr. Lowe for his congregation in Camarillo, California, the Sabbath morning before he and his wife left for Bangkok. So moved were members by this sincere prayer that many have asked whether it couldn't be shared with the larger church family.

December 1980

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