Healing Prayer Service at St. Paul Lutheran Church
St. Paul Lutheran Church in Clarence Center, NY invites our congregation and neighbors to a special Healing Prayer Service on September 6, following the Divine Service. Several times each year, usually three or four times annually, we gather at the altar rail to pray for those who are sick, suffering, burdened, grieving, or in need of the Lord’s comfort and strength. This service is a simple and reverent opportunity to bring our needs before God, trusting His mercy in Jesus Christ.
Christians pray for healing because the Lord cares for both body and soul. Throughout Scripture, God’s people cry out to Him in sickness, weakness, fear, and affliction, and the Lord hears their prayers according to His good and gracious will. At St. Paul, we do not treat prayer as a technique or a guarantee of a particular earthly outcome. Rather, we pray as children speaking to their heavenly Father, asking Him for healing, mercy, patience, endurance, and steadfastness in suffering.
What Happens at the Healing Prayer Service?
After the Divine Service, those who desire prayer are invited to come to the altar rail. Selected Scriptures are read, the congregation prays together as a large group, and the pastors anoint each person with oil who would like to receive it. The elders also pray for each person, asking the Lord to grant healing, comfort, strength, and peace according to His gracious will.
The altar rail is a fitting place for this prayer because it is where Christ’s gifts are regularly received in the Divine Service. There the Church remembers that our help does not come from ourselves, but from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Whether someone is carrying physical illness, emotional pain, grief, anxiety, long-term suffering, or concern for a loved one, the Church gathers to pray in faith and love.
St. Paul Lutheran Church does not guarantee healing as though God’s mercy could be controlled or commanded. We do not place the burden on the suffering person, as if stronger faith would always produce the desired result. Instead, we confess that the Lord is good, that He hears prayer, and that He gives grace sufficient for His people even in weakness. This kind of prayer is both honest and hopeful. We ask boldly for healing because God invites us to pray, and we also ask for steadfastness when suffering remains. The Christian hope is not grounded in the removal of every earthly affliction, but in Christ crucified and risen, who forgives sins, strengthens faith, and promises the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
A Praying Church in Clarence Center, NY
St. Paul seeks to be a praying church for Clarence Center, Clarence, East Amherst, Williamsville, Lockport, and the greater Buffalo area. Our church prayer page invites people to share prayer requests with the pastoral care team, including confidential requests, so that the Church may continue to pray for those in need. Our weekly prayer guide also encourages daily prayer, Scripture reading, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and petitions for the sick, the dying, those fighting cancer, caregivers, families, schools, and the Church.
If you are searching for a Lutheran church in Clarence, NY, a traditional church near East Amherst, or a church near Buffalo that prays for the sick and suffering, we invite you to join us. Come to the Divine Service on September 6 and remain afterward for the Healing Prayer Service. Bring your burdens before the Lord, and let the Church pray with you in the name of Jesus Christ.
