4 Encouraging Prayers for Our Doctors

It’s easy to look at doctors as superhuman. We turn to them for life-saving or life-enhancing answers and treatments, but God created them human with concerns and problems just like we experience. As my doctor shared, they get sick too. They also have family and financial issues and even though they seldom show it, they have doubts, troubles, and worries of their own.

We set high expectations for our doctors and the last thing we want to hear from a doctor, or he or she wants to tell us, is “I’ve run out of ideas. There’s nothing else we can do.” Doctors emotionally carry the burdens of their patients and may feel like failures when they can’t save someone or maybe even make a mistake. I’m sure waves of depression and sadness take a toll on some, maybe even leading them to leave the profession or turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms.

During the COVID pandemic, the medical profession was taxed with long hours while they risked their own lives to save and treat patients who looked to them for healing. Doctors can suffer PTSD from the prolonged trauma and losing so many patients to this elusive disease.

While we seldom become involved in the lives of our doctors beyond their medical interaction with us, we can intervene for them in prayer. One of our greatest privileges as Christians is the power of prayer, especially when we pray for God’s will in the life of others. Prayer is a powerful thing you can do, even when you don’t know what else to do.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thess. 5:16-18

When I had my first breast cancer surgery in 2002, friends and family were with me right up until they rolled me into surgery. Many friends gathered around my pre-op bed along with my husband and daughter as we joined hands to pray. All the nurses could see and hear us. We invited them to join in and let them know we were praying for them too.

Every surgery I’ve had, I tell the surgeon and the anesthesiologist that they’re being prayed for and I list some of the specific areas before I drift off to sleep. When family or friends are dealing with an illness, we pray for them personally, but we should also pray for their doctors. Here are four prayers for doctors and I’m sure you can think of more that fit your specific situation.

Prayer for Doctors Energy

Father, we know how hard our doctors work and the long grueling hours often on their feet standing in surgery or maybe running between their office and a hospital or clinic. They’re usually booked throughout the day with a patient every fifteen or twenty minutes, quickly refreshing their memory with each patient’s chart while listening to their updates and working on solutions. Oh, Lord, you know how a doctor’s day can be draining both physically and mentally.

Lord, we pray that you will watch over our doctors’ health and remind them to follow the prescription they often give us for exercise, eating nutritionally, maintaining an appropriate weight, getting sufficient sleep, and not ignoring any signs of their own illness. You’ve gifted them with an incredible memory but fatigue can cloud their mind.

We ask for skilled and steady hands to perform treatments when surgeons operate on our bodies while keeping our vitals at appropriate levels. Just thinking about all they do for each of us is exhausting, but this is the profession they’ve chosen and we are grateful for them so we ask Lord that when they put their head on the pillow at night, they sleep peacefully and wake up in the morning refreshed and renewed.

Photo Credit: Luis Melendez/Unsplash 

Lord, you are the great Jehovah Rapha, the “God who heals," the Great Physician! We thank you for blessing so many men and women with the gift of healing knowledge and the desire to help all who come to them needing and wanting answers and solutions to their illnesses.

We ask you Father to infuse them with the wisdom and clarity to listen carefully to their patients’ symptoms so they’ll be able to deduce the appropriate medication and treatment for each one. Lord, we also ask for the doctor's awareness that their successes aren’t based on their own greatness for fear that they become prideful and less compassionate. Instead, Jehovah Rapha, we ask that they would acknowledge you as the Creator of our magnificent bodies and the giver of all skills, discernment, and wisdom as they determine how to treat sickness and disease.

We pray that they would seek wise counsel and take the time to do research when they’re not sure of the correct treatment. Please give each doctor the determination and will to arrive at the best possible outcome for their patient's health and wellbeing.

The Bible tells us in James 1:5 that “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” We pray that our doctors would humbly ask you Lord for direction and clarity in the way they should go. Amen

Prayer for Doctors Personal Life

Dear Lord, forgive us when we forget that our doctors have lives outside of their office and remind us to pray for their family and relationships. Difficulties at home cause distractions for everyone, so Father please give us patience when our doctor is less compassionate than we expect. He or she has a heavy responsibility and may have had a bad morning or situation at home. Let us be sensitive and compassionate ourselves.

Lord, we do pray for our doctors’ families who have to share him or her with the demands and emergency needs of patients, sometimes in the middle of the night or on a holiday. Bless these families Father with understanding and love for the difficult profession of their loved one. We pray that those who love and care for our doctors make their home a pleasant retreat to return to at the end of the day for refueling and rest. Let it be a safe place and a change of pace from their stressful day where they can regroup and prepare for the next day’s busy schedule.

Lord in heaven, we may not know our doctors’ spiritual persuasion, but you do. We pray for their salvation and that they might each see a little of you in us, their patient. Let our light shine in our conversation and reaction to our doctors’ suggestions, diagnoses, and treatments. Help our conversation to be polite and respectful, even when we’re scared or upset. Help us maintain an attitude appropriate for a believer.

If the opportunity occurs to share our faith or our source of peace and contentment, please give us the courage. Our doctors’ goal is to save our physical life, and we pray he or she is successful, but let us always convey our ultimate hope is in you Lord. No matter what the outcome of our earthly life, we will be spending eternity with you. Provide us the words that will lead the doctors who don’t know you to find eternal salvation. Give us a burden to pray for them and not just for ourselves. Amen

How to Give Back to the Doctors That Serve Us

Ask your doctors how you can pray for them. It can be a simple question as you say your goodbyes at the end of your appointment or when they visit you in the hospital. You’ll probably be amazed at how grateful they’ll be that you care enough about them to pray for their life and work.

Thank doctors for their care and concern. Doctors are usually pulled in many directions with expectations of providing answers and even miracles, while sometimes having to give bad news they wish they didn’t have to deliver. Letting them know you appreciate all they’re doing for you is encouraging and uplifting. You can end each conversation with “Thank you doctor. I truly appreciate you.” Also sending a thank you card will be something they treasure. We’re always asking our doctors to perform for us, but taking the time to put your appreciation in writing is something they can reread when they’re having a tough day. Who doesn’t enjoy a card in the mail?!

Shower your doctors with blessings! I like to close each conversation whether on the phone or in-person with “Blessings on your day!” I’ve yet to ever have anyone not be grateful. The reply is either “Thank you” or a reciprocal response. Try it and watch for the smiles.

 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. Prov. 17:22 NLT

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It’s been said that prayer is the best medicine and God is the best doctor. I think we would all agree with that statement, but we also know that God works through medicine and doctors to help and hopefully heal us. Our job is to thank God for the doctors and praise God for the answers we see.

Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. Ps. 103:2-3 NLT

Sometimes when we don’t know what to pray, personalizing Scripture as a prayer helps us pray God’s will and not our own.

A prayer for doctors personalized from Ephesians 1:16-20 NLT

I have not stopped thanking God for you my doctors. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

I also pray that you doctors will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe in him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. In Jesus' name I pray for you dear doctor. Amen