Prayer to Remember Baptism in Illness

O Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost! Behold I, Thy child, find myself in a condition in which human help is vain. I look around me and ask for help, and there is none that responds. But I will not despair; nay, I will come to Thee, my heavenly Father, and bring my complaint to Thee. As the sheep in distress hastens to its shepherd, the child to his father, the subject to his king, so I hasten to Thee, my King, my Father, my Shepherd.

O Triune God, remember that I am Thy child; that I have been baptized; and that in holy baptism I have made a covenant with Thee. In that covenant Thou didst promise to be my Father, to care for me as a Father, to, help me, and to deal with me in love. Jesus has washed me with His precious blood, and bestowed upon me the robe of His perfect righteousness. The Holy Ghost has been shed upon me abundantly, and cries in my heart, Abba, Father, — bearing witness with my spirit that I am Thy child. O Triune God, behold I, Thy wretched child, come to Thee. My father and my mother forsake me, my relatives and friends cannot help me; but do Thou, O heavenly Father, take me up.

As the centurion had pity on his servant who lay sick unto death, and spared no pains to help him, so do Thou, O my Father, pity and help me. As the father whose daughter lay at the point of death followed after Jesus and besought Him, "Lord, my daughter is even now dead; but come and lay Thy hands upon her and she shall live/ 1 so I also follow Thee, my God and Father, and beseech Thee: If it be Thy will, if it be for my good, make me well again, preserve my life. I know that Thou art an almighty Father, a wise Father, a gracious and loving Father; and whither shall a child go in its need but to its father. Lord God, the Father in heaven, have mercy upon me! Lord God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon me! Lord God the Holy Ghost, have mercy upon me! Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. O have mercy upon me also.

If I have been a disobedient child, I repent. If I have forsaken Thee, I now return to Thee. As the father received the returning prodigal, so do Thou mercifully receive me, who now come to Thee in repentance and faith, and cry, Have mercy, have mercy, upon me, O God. If Thou shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Trusting in Thee, I wait for Thy help. I have already learned that it is possible to be a child of Thine and yet to suffer sickness and sorrow, and to bear many crosses; and therefore Satan shall not easily shake me in my confidence that I am Thy child. And yet I beseech Thee, let me behold Thy Fatherly love, and know that Thou hast not forsaken me; let me experience Thy Fatherly hand. Amen.