As a quadriplegic with fragile lungs, I’m always asking friends to pray for me.
I flourish on prayer, not simply prayer for my physical well-being. I am always asking friends to follow my 20%/80% way of lifting needs before the Lord, 20% for physical needs, and 80% for spiritual needs: increased faith, fresh courage, an embrace of Jesus' promises, bright spirits, a singing heart, enlarged hope, patience, and greater concern for others in need. I want to be always thinking on things that are pure, noble, right, just, praiseworthy, and true.
It’s the way I live. Sure, I could ask people to lift up my physical needs: prayerfully bolstering my strength, mobilizing amino acids, proteins, white blood cells, keeping my oxygen levels up, and so on. These are good and specific requests about physical health. But God knows far more about quadriplegia than my friends or I do: “your Father knows what you need even before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8). The way I see it, God can do miracles with our 20% prayer focus on physical needs.
It’s that 80% part that’s critical. In the middle of the night when I feel congestion rising, I need peace of heart, patience, and confidence in God’s promises. When I become weary and overwhelmed from lack of sleep, I need perseverance. When my thoughts turn dark and morbid, I need fresh courage, bright hope, and mental focus to remember, "Come on, Joni, God will never leave you nor forsake you. His strength is made perfect in your weakness." These virtues are just as important for physical health, for I know that “a broken spirit saps a person’s strength” (Prov. 17:22, NLT).
I take Proverbs 17:22 quite literally: “A cheerful heart is good medicine.” I follow the Holy Spirit’s prescription in Phil. 4:8, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Whether I listen to audio pages of Christian classics, or watch Bible study videos on YouTube, I keep feeding my spirit and starving the sinful nature that chooses fear and anxiety.
There’s one more thing for which I ask my friends to pray. Should I become ill and need to go to the hospital, the pharmacy, or to doctor appointments, I want to remember others. It’s what followers of Jesus are called to do, focus on others. Sickness or disability does not give us time off from the call of Phil. 2:4 to not “look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.” Ken and I take an ample supply of gospel tracts wherever we go─ blessing doctors and nurses in the name of Jesus, stopping to pray for them, and speaking words of Spirit-blessed encouragement.
It's what we should do when our health goes south. We show the world that Christ is our treasure, no matter how life threatening our condition. Psalm 84:11 (ESV) is a great elixir for any ill, assuring us that "No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." There is nothing sweeter than being bolstered with good courage, good endurance, and confidence in our good and great Savior.
Consider using the 20/80% matrix in your prayer life. It’s a good way─perhaps the best way─to strengthen your heart, your soul, your faith, and your physical well-being.
For Further Study:
📖 Read:
💭 Reflect:
- What percentage of your prayers focus on physical needs?
- How might shifting your focus impact your heart—and your peace?
🙏 Pray:
Lord, grow my faith and help me fix my thoughts on what is true and lovely. Give me courage to pray beyond my needs and care for others in the process. Amen.
