How to Pray for Your Doctor Through Infertility

I sat with my friend in a quaint coffee shop watching the tears stream down her face. Yet, she wasn’t crying about anything she was going through — she was lamenting for me.

I was updating her on a recent encounter with my [former] doctor, where I had been disrespected, humiliated, and disregarded. She had plenty of unsavory words for my doctor as I shared my story. The first thing she asked was, “What did you say to him?”

I responded, “I didn’t say anything, really. I left the office and prayed for him in my car.”

Her eyes were as wide as the coffee mugs we were drinking out of. “You prayed for him?! That would have been my last response!”

On that day in my doctor’s office, prayer seemed to be the only effective and necessary response to a situation so shocking and painful. My heart’s desire was to be with the Lord in that moment, not to lash out in anger. And since then, I couldn’t help but pray even more intently about the men and women who are involved in my healthcare.

Please allow my heart’s cry to guide your prayers today, too.

Praying for Your Doctor

Heavenly Father,

I lift up the doctors and staff overseeing my health and infertility treatments. I bring them to your feet and ask you to soften their hearts today, Lord. Thank you for the time, dedication, and energy they have put into caring for the needs of your precious people. Thank you for the sacrifices they have made.

I ask that you fill them with the fruits of your Spirit. That love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control would reign in their lives (Gal. 5:22-23). Increase the compassion in their hearts, Father. I know this line of work is exhausting, taxing, and burdensome. But Lord, may they not be defeated and burdened by their profession. May they use it as an opportunity to glorify you (1 Cor. 10:31).

I pray that you keep their hearts free from the love of money (Heb. 13:5). Lord, may money and greed not interfere with their calling to help and heal. I pray that the temptations within their profession would not overtake them, God (1 Cor. 10:13). May they see their patients as the individual, precious, beloved children that you see.

I ask that you increase compassion in them, Lord. Open their eyes to what may be hindering their ability to connect with their patients’ needs. Show them where they need to humble themselves, where they need to open their ears to listen, where they need to spend more time with their patients. Let them not seek their own good, but the good of their neighbors (1 Cor. 10:24).

Lord, please show them how to value human life, born and unborn, in the way you do. Show them that each life is a gift from above, that we’re made in your image (Gen. 1:27), and that each created being should be treated with tender care. Lord, please humble them to recognize the limits and qualifications they project on those in their care. Reveal your design for creation, for humanity, for life. May nothing stand in their way of fighting for every miracle of life.

Father, I ask that you show them their need for a Savior. Though their degrees, education, and qualifications may be grand, Lord please show them that nothing compares to your redeeming love. May they be humbled by the mercy, grace, and salvation freely offered to all who call on your name (Rom. 10:13). May they receive the truth that salvation is found is no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we are saved (Acts 4:12).

Above all, Jesus I thank you that you are our Great Physician (John 5:1-9) and that we have been eternally healed by your wounds (1 Peter 2:2-4). Thank you for making us strong in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9) and giving us rest when we are burdened (Matt. 11:28). I echo David who said, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life” (Psalm 119:50).

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Cover photo used with permission: Aaron Burden, Unsplash