The appointment card is on the nightstand, propped against the lamp where you cannot miss it. You have set two alarms. You have laid out the clothes that are easy to take off. And now it is eleven o’clock and you are lying in the dark, doing arithmetic you do not want to do.
The short answer: The night before a medical test, you do not have to pray for a guaranteed good result. You can pray honestly for God’s nearness through either result. Psalm 56:3 says, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee,” which assumes fear and trust can exist at the same time. A prayer that holds both outcomes is often steadier than one that demands a single answer.
Why so many prayers for test results feel hollow
If you have searched for a prayer tonight, you have probably found lists of them. Many ask God to make every number come back normal, to protect the samples, to guide the technicians. There is nothing wrong with asking for a good result. Scripture invites us to bring our requests.
But some of those prayers quietly promise something God never promised: that the result will be good if you pray well enough. And a woman who prays that way, and then gets the phone call anyway, can be left with two losses instead of one. The diagnosis, and the fear that her faith failed.
There is a more honest way to pray tonight, and it is not less faithful. It is more.
Fear and trust at the same time
David wrote this while he was in enemy hands:
What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
Psalm 56:3, KJV
Look at the grammar. Not if I am afraid. What time: when. David, who killed a lion and a giant, assumes that fear will come. And then the trust is placed inside the fear, not after it.
You do not have to stop being afraid tonight in order to trust God tonight. Those are not two stages. They are two things happening in the same chest, at the same hour, in the same dark room.
That is a relief to many women. You have probably been trying to make the fear go away as proof that you are trusting. It does not work that way, and it was never supposed to.
A prayer that holds both outcomes
Three young men once stood in front of a furnace and told a king two things at once. First, our God is able to deliver us. And then, in the same breath: but if not, we will still not bow.
That is the shape of a prayer that can survive tomorrow, whatever the paper says. You ask with your whole heart for the good result. And you settle, tonight, that God will still be God if it does not come.
It is not resignation. It is the strongest faith there is, because it does not depend on the outcome to stand.
A prayer for the night before the test
God, tomorrow they will look inside me and find out something I do not know yet, and tonight I am lying here trying not to imagine what.
I know You already have the result. That should comfort me more than it does. What comforts me tonight is smaller and closer: that You are in this room, at this hour, and that whatever the paper says on Thursday, it will not be news to You and it will not be the end of Your care for me.
I am not asking to stop being afraid. I have tried that and it does not work by wanting it. I am asking You to stay near the fear, and to give me the next hour, and then the one after that, until morning comes and I get in the car.
Go with me into that room. Amen.
This prayer is one of twenty-four for the days you have no words of your own. There is one for the morning the results come, and one for when you are tired of being the patient. They are free.
What to do with the hours before morning
Hand over the watch. The mind at night believes that if it keeps worrying, it is somehow keeping you safe. It is not. Psalm 121 says the One who keeps you does not sleep. Your staying awake guards nothing.
Say the fear out loud, once. Name exactly what you are afraid of, to God, in a sentence. Fears that are named are usually smaller than fears that circle.
Do one ordinary thing. Make tea. Fold a towel. The body calms when the hands do something simple.
Decide who you will call tomorrow. Know who will drive you, who will sit with you, who you will tell. That decision made tonight is one less thing waiting for you in the morning.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Bible verse before a medical test?
Psalm 56:3 is a short, honest verse to carry in: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Isaiah 41:10 and Psalm 121 are also comforting. Choose one short enough to remember in a waiting room.
Is it wrong to pray for good test results?
No. Asking God for a good result is natural and biblical. Many Christians find it steadier to also pray for God’s presence through any outcome, so their faith does not rest entirely on a single result.
How do I stop worrying the night before a test?
You may not be able to stop the worry completely, and that is not a failure of faith. It helps to name the specific fear, hand the night over to God in prayer, do one simple physical task, and plan who will be with you the next day.
Keep reading
Written by Ellen G. Coyle, author of A Year at His Feet.
If you want a companion for the whole year, A Year at His Feet is 365 short readings for the woman who is still carrying something.