When Their Pain Becomes Your Prayer

Cancer Sucks.

Lately, I’ve been talking to God a lot about suffering—tragedies from accidents to diagnoses that make you sick to your stomach. Cancer seems to be showing up again and again in the lives of people I love. It’s frustrating. It’s heartbreaking. It’s unfair.

As an introvert, I often wrestle with how to support people well. I don’t want to be up in their business or say the wrong thing. But I do want to be there. I want to be a helper without making anyone’s burden heavier.

So I’m learning to show up in quiet ways:

• Covering them in prayer

• Adding their names to a daily prayer list

• Walking or running a mile while praying for them by name

• On days they have procedures, putting it on my calendar and setting alarms to pause and pray throughout the day

• Sending small texts, notes, or simple gifts just to say: You are seen

  
  

It’s not loud. It’s not flashy. It's faith.

Here are a few verses I’ve been clinging to—for them and for me:

• Romans 12:12 — "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

• Galatians 6:2 — "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

• Psalm 34:18 — "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

• Isaiah 41:10 — "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you."

• 1 Thessalonians 5:17 — "Pray without ceasing."

  
  

You don’t have to have the right words. Just love people the best way you know how—and bring their names before the One who heals, comforts, and sustains.

Prayer

I lift up the people I love who are hurting—those walking through cancer, grief, or pain I can’t fix. I want to be a comfort, not a weight. Teach me how to show up quietly but faithfully. Give me eyes to see their needs and a spirit that prays without ceasing.

Be their strength when they are weak. Be their peace when they are overwhelmed. Be their healer, their hope, and their rest.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.