Prayer Pond

PRAYER IS THE HEARTBEAT OF CHRONIC JOY®.

Welcome to the Chronic Joy® Prayer Pond, where you can share your prayer requests, updates, and shouts of praise. At Chronic Joy®, we’re passionate about prayer.

You are invited to pray for this ministry, for those affected by chronic illness and mental illness, and for each prayer request tossed into our Prayer Pond.

Whether a request, praise, lament, loss, joy, hope, or grief, prayer ripples beyond this day and the boundaries of our world.

We often hear, “Prayer is the least I can do,” when in reality, prayer is the most we can do. As we connect with our Heavenly Father and with one another in prayer, our serving hearts grow and thrive.

“For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” Matthew 18:20

PRAYER POND

What happens when chronic pain drives us to bed day after day?

What happens when we feel the weight of loneliness?

And what happens when we’ve searched for answers, but found none?

Many of us have felt the sting of wounding in the very places we sought safety. Sadly, even as we have requested prayer, some of us have been met with words cloaked in shame, judgment, or condemnation.

At the Prayer Pond, we invite Jesus to meet our heavy hearts with His Good Word.

OUR SAVIOR IS A SAFE HARBOR

In Christ, we always have a safe harbor to come to just as we are.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 ESV

The old-fashioned word in the middle of the verse – supplication – simply means to humbly ask. Jesus will never turn us away. In fact, He specifically asks us to bring our requests to God. As we lift our hearts, He lifts every burden, wrapping us in peace.

Is this world of chronic illness a place where life is stunted? Or could there be a hidden gift of intimacy with our Lord not seen before? Perhaps it is precisely the place where prayers are born.

Could it be that the unrelenting pain is exactly what causes us to cry out to God for help?

We believe chronic illness invites us to shelter under Christ’s outstretched wings. Jesus is present in our unrelenting pain, where His own sweet breath becomes our every prayer. For in this place of crying-out, hidden longings are lifted up to Him and the Spirit moves to intercede in and through His Presence in us.

EXPRESSING OUR DEEP LONGINGS IN PRAYER

There is a longing in our souls that rises from the deep places, of “Deep calling out to deep,” Psalm 42:7, as we long for God to, “Hear the voice of [our] supplications,” Psalm 28:2.

Sometimes those vague terms cause us to flounder and set aside His call to prayer. Yet what if this safe harbor for prayer is also a safe harbor to learn how to pray, to express the vague and unnamed feelings lingering in our hearts?

Want to Learn More?

Join us at the Let’s Pray page, a safe and inviting harbor to explore a breadth and depth of prayer.