For those of you praying along with me for miracles these forty days, please read aloud this Psalm with my name and ask God to reveal new feeling and function in my body.
Psalm 102 (NIV)
A prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord.
1 Hear Laura's prayer, Lord;
let Laura’s cries for help come to you.
2 Do not hide your face from Laura when she is in distress. Turn your ear to Laura; when she calls, answer her quickly.
3 For Laura’s days vanish like smoke;
Laura’s bones burn like glowing embers.
4 Laura’s heart is blighted and withered like grass;
Laura forgets to eat her food.
5 In Laura’s distress she groans aloud
and she is reduced to skin and bones.
6 Laura is like a desert owl,
like an owl among the ruins.
7 Laura lies awake; Laura has become
like a bird alone on a roof.
8 All day long Laura’s enemies taunt her;
those who rail against Laura use her name as a curse.
9 For Laura eats ashes as her food
and mingle her drink with tears
10 because of your great wrath, for you have taken her up and thrown her aside.
11 Laura’s days are like the evening shadow; Laura withers away like grass.
12 But you, Lord, sit enthroned forever;
your renown endures through all generations.
13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come.
14 For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity.
15 The nations will fear the name of the Lord,
all the kings of the earth will revere your glory.
16 For the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.
17 she will respond to the prayer of the destitute;
he will not despise their plea.
18 Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the Lord:
19 “The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high,
from heaven he viewed the earth,
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners
and release those condemned to death.”
21 So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion
and his praise in Jerusalem
22 when the peoples and the kingdoms
assemble to worship the Lord.
23 In the course of Laura’s life she broke her strength;
he cut short her days.
24 So Laura said:
“Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations.
25 In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
27 But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.
28 The children of your servants will live in your presence;
their descendants will be established before you.”