Praying for Covid-19 Long Haulers and For Us To Persevere Well Over The Long Haul

 One of the saddest results of this pandemic are the “long haulers” – those who continue to have debilitating effects of covid-19 months after they are free from the virus.

Older people and people with many serious medical conditions are the most likely to experience lingering COVID-19 symptoms, but even young, otherwise healthy people can feel unwell for weeks to months after infection. The most common signs and symptoms that linger over time include:

Fatigue, Shortness of breath, Cough, Joint pain, Chest pain, muscle pain or headache, fast or pounding heartbeat, loss of smell or taste, memory, concentration or sleep problems, rash or hair loss.

That’s a pretty ugly list and it’s no easier to bear if you are older and nearer a natural end to your life or if you are young and are perhaps looking at many years of these effects. 

Lord today we want to pray for this increasing group of people around the world who are still so compromised after suffering covid-19.  We dare to ask for Your mercy and Your healing for them.  Free them from these horrible effects.  Give them back strength and the ability to smell and taste.  Steady their minds so they can remember and concentrate and when it’s time to sleep, to do so for long uninterrupted hours.  Relieve them of cough, pain of any kind, and give them new energy and the ability to get on with things and continue with them until they are completed.  We pray Isaiah 40 over them:

Don’t you yet understand? Don’t you know by now that the everlasting God, the Creator of the farthest parts of the earth, never grows faint or weary? No one can fathom the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak. Even the youths shall be exhausted, and the young men will all give up. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.  Isaiah 40:28-31

And then if we turn our attention to other things that “doing it for the long haul” bring to mind, I’m reminded that even though we are faithless, God promises to be faithful to us. The Apostle Paul, who himself had to endure a lot over the long haul for the sake of sharing the good news about Jesus, said this:

Because I preach this Good News, I am suffering and have been chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained. So I am willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen.

This is a trustworthy saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is. 2 Timothy 2:9-13

Well Lord, I hope that I never have to go through all that Paul went through but I know there are many people around the world who are suffering, and some for many years, because they’ve been faithful to try to spread the good news about You to others in countries that don’t want to have anything to do with You.  Lord, for those who languish in prisons today, please give them hope and strength.  Send someone along to encourage them and care for them today.  Steady their hearts under the challenges they face.  Keep them strong in faith as they endure what they have to endure over the long haul.

We are grateful, once again, that the first example of doing this is the Lord Jesus who was “in it for the long haul” when He volunteered to leave heaven and come here to earth to live among us to show us the Father’s love and then die and give up His life for us on the cross so we could have eternal life with God forever in His love. 

Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.  John 13:1

Even though He knew suffering awaited Him, and the burden of that was so great, still He endured – the mocking, the beatings, the torture, the crown of thorns shoved onto His head, the carrying of His cross, the being nailed hands and feet to it, and then dying not only a physical death but the ugliness and heaviness of a spiritual death and separation from God that we will never have to experience – Jesus You loved us to the very end.  We don’t quite know how to respond to such a great love as this but we give thanks that Jesus, You stayed in it for the long haul on our behalf. 

Help us now to do that to whatever degree is asked of us in our lifetime.  May we be faithful and active followers of Jesus who daily take up our cross and follow Him.  Amen