Lord, Teach Me How To Pray

My nephew's wife was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer of the breast.  My sister's husband has been battling a progressive decline due to the onset of Parkinson's disease.  The brother of My Love is undergoing both radiation and chemotherapy for cancer in the lymph nodes near his esophagus.  The list goes on and on of family and friends who are suffering and struggling.

Family members close to them all are requesting prayers.  "Please pray for healing for _____."  "Pray that God will heal them of their disease."  "Pray that they get better so that they can be restored to their family."  "Pray that they can beat this so they can return to their work and support their loved ones."

All these pleas seem good, positive, natural in the circumstances.  Who can argue with them?

Yet, I struggle.  I hesitate.  I flounder in forming my prayer.  What is the best thing to pray for?  I know what I would like to happen for each of them, but is that necessarily the best thing for them.  Only God knows what they really need in their lives at this point.

There is a wonderful story from Early Christian oral tradition.  Whether true or not, it illustrates my point.  Following upon the raising of Lazarus from the  dead in John's Gospel, this tradition says that Lazarus spent the rest of his life (he did have to die eventually!) with a look of sadness on his face.  Never again did he smile for while his body was in the tomb for 3 days, he was enjoying the peace and joy of heaven.  Then he had to come back to this life.  This left him with a sad heart and a longing for eternity.

So how should I pray for those loved ones around me who are suffering and struggling?  I do not want to, nor do I have the right to pray them into a reality that is not going to bring them true peace and joy.  Only God can know what is in their best interest because only God has an eternal perspective.

Then it struck me.  I can wholeheartedly pray that they come to know, to experience, to feel the great love that God has for them.  For if they can come to realize the depth of God's love for them in every fiber of their beings, then they will be totally healed.  Even if they are not cured of their physical maladies, they will be healed in the fullest sense.

So that has become my prayer:  "Lord, touch them deeply with your love.  Let them taste it, feel it, know it on every level of their being, in every relationship of their lives. Let them know that You Are God."  With this prayer I am at peace because I know I have placed them in God's loving hands.  What could be better than that?