Truth Seekers Newsletter
October 21, 2006 (Part Two): Disease ... Being an Ambassador in Chains
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So ... Would You Sign Up?
If you knew that your greatest witness for the Lord would come as a person who suffers, would you eagerly sign up? James 1:2 says to "consider it pure joy" whenever we face trials of many kinds. Is he nuts? I can think of many forms of suffering I have witnessed, for which I do not want to volunteer!
Why Would God Ask Us to Suffer?
As we have discussed, suffering gives us an opportunity to know God is God and we are not. It gives us an opportunity to feel our powerlessness, so we can feel His Power. Suffering drives us to our knees. Recognizing our powerlessness and His Power, we reach out to Him.
Suffering allows us to experience a commonality with the Body of Christ. No one can touch another like someone, who has suffered in a similar manner. When I teach nursing students, I tell them not to stifle their tears. Feeling one's own sadness allows us to understand the sadness of others. When other people cry, we can relate. We have cried also.
The Suffering of Jesus
Jesus took on our sicknesses and our sins. He felt each one of them, knowing how it affected us. Many people are puzzled by the account of Jesus' reaction to His Friend, Lazarus' death. He cried. Why? He knew that He was going to raise him from the dead. I believe He cried because He genuinely felt the suffering and grief of those around Him. Jesus is the only One Who can legitimately say, "I feel your pain."
Abandoned?
Suffering gives an opportunity to believe for that which is unseen (healing), when the seen is very prominent (disease). When suffering continues one day after another, even good Christians begin to question whether God has abandoned them.
Perhaps even worse is to realize that God is present, seeing our suffering and has the Power to stop our suffering, but does not. How could He say that He loves us and let us continue to suffer? Again, Jesus has already been there on our behalf. As the suffering on the cross continued, Jesus said, "My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?" He was feeling what we would feel at times. But note, that feeling was only temporary. Jesus' Time on the cross ended the same as His Life was lived, in total surrender to His Father, confident that His Father was very present and very willing and able to receive His Spirit.
Get Up!
When a child is learning to walk, he will suffer many falls. Do we rush in and scoop him up and never let him fall again? No, we see the greater good. We can see the day ahead the child does not see. We know he will eventually get the hang of it and he will walk. We, therefore, watch over him carefully, but we permit the falls. He learns more and more what he needs to do and his muscles become stronger.
When Saul was knocked to his feet on the Damascus road, it is interesting that after God got his attention, He did not help him to his feet. God told Saul to get up! Saul's spiritual training first involved his putting some effort into the process. Next, it involved his hearing what Jesus was saying and obeying it.
When we are knocked to our feet, first of all, we must pay attention and listen to the Lord for instructions as to what to do. His first instructions may be to get up!
What About That Famous Poem That Says the Lack of Footprints in the Sand Were The Times When He Carried Us?
Sometimes God does carry us. We may misinterpret this to mean that when we whine and complain, He will pick us up and carry us right out of the situation of suffering. But that is not necessarily true. If we are on the path of suffering by God's Design, He will not lead us some place else.
But He will strengthen us and help us along the way. When Jesus stumbled and fell, as He carried the cross, God did not make the cross go away, but He provided someone to carry it. When we stumble under the weight of grief or illness, Jesus steps out of the crowd and says, "You don't have to carry this alone. I know what it is like to carry a heavy load and need some help in carrying it. Let Me carry that for you."
Why Disease In The First Place?
Besides the troubling thought that we are suffering and God is not responding, there is a deeper, more heart rending thought. If God is God, He could have prevented suffering in the first place. Why would He allow someone to be struck with illness?
John 9:1-3 tells of a man who was blind from birth. Since he is noted to be a man as opposed to a boy, that tells us that he had been blind for quite awhile. Jesus' Disciples asked Him, "Who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Many of us puzzle over the case of children born with terrible disabilities. How could such a thing happen with a merciful God?
All roads do lead to God. We know that God is our Creator. When things are less than perfect, in our estimation, we are puzzled. It is easier to think someone else must be responsible. But note Jesus' answer. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." It is not so much a question of where did it come from as it is what God will do with it!
What Things Were Displayed In the Life of the Man Born Blind?
This man had lived for years. In that time, undoubtedly other people had the opportunity to care for him. They learned to give. He learned to receive from them and be thankful. Someone helped him get to Jesus the day of his healing.
His life demonstrated patience and a faith that did not give up. Something that day said, "Yes, it has been a long time that I have been this way ... but it is still possible that this circumstance can change." It is stated elsewhere in the Bible that where there was a lack of faith, Jesus could not do miracles. He had all Power and Authority to do so, but there were times that He offered the gift of healing and no one took Him up on it. This blind man had learned how to receive from others. He was ready to receive from Jesus.
Let's digress a moment to us. How many of us are living with illnesses and we have come to accept them? I battle some things myself where I think, "Well, it has been this way for a long time. I need to accept it." But the gospel of Jesus tells us that we do not have to accept disease or any lack of wholeness. We don't accept the disease. We accept Jesus and we are open to the knowledge that He is able to heal us. Our lives could change in an instant!
The blind man demonstrated in his life that healing can come after a long time. His life was a demonstration of what Jesus could do. His life was a demonstration of Glory to God!
It Is What Is Inside the Vessel that Counts!
Joni Ericson Tada was once a vibrant, young teenager, intent on a fun time, swimming. But a dive into water too shallow changed her life forever. She came out of the water as a quadriplegic, no longer able to move anything below her neck. Truly a broken vessel.
But through that broken vessel, God has created beauty through the pictures Joni has painted by holding a paint brush in her teeth. God has spoken through Joni's testimony, spoken and written words, all of which give Glory to God. Many, many people's lives have been touched by God's Work in her life to His Glory!
How Can We Bear What We Are Asked To Bear, For God's Glory?
Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians 4:16-18, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal!" Do not lose heart! Whatever your circumstances, do all for the Glory of God!
No, That Sounds Good for God, But, As a Human, I Just Can't Do This!
So are we weaklings if we are not excited about suffering for God's Glory? God has been merciful to us in not letting us know the future and not letting us worry about what is to come. But there was One who did know the future and He knew in great, gory detail what was about to happen to Him. Jesus was not excited.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not My Will, but Yours be done." Jesus said in effect, "I know we have discussed all this before, Father ... and I know it is Your Plan ... and I know it will bring You Glory ... but could we rethink this? Surely there has to be another way."
But note, the key elements in what else Jesus had to say ... words of submission. "If You are willing ... not My Will ... Yours be done." God is God. We submit to His Perfect Will for our lives, as did Jesus.
If Healing is God's Will, Then Why Doesn't He Always Heal?
Many of us know good Christians, who prayed for healing and had many others praying for their healing. Yet, it appears they were not healed. They died. Why were they never healed?
Answer: They were healed, just not in the way we expected.
The Other Room
What if I have a gift to give you. I have the authority to give it to you. No one can stop me. I already have it picked out and it has your name on it. And you really want it. You say, "I know you have the gift to give me. Please give it to me now."
And I say, "OK, that sounds great. Let's go in the next room and get it." But you say, "No, I want you to give it to me in this room." I say, "It is such a wonderful gift that it is well worth the short walk into the next room. Come on. Let's go!"
Many people expect and demand their healing to happen on earth. They are not ready to consider that it could happen any other way. But, in fact, God often has a bigger gift for us than we can think or imagine. In fact, it is too big to fit in this earthly room. God has that gift of healing for us in heaven, in a place where no disease is allowed.
When our prayers are for God to put things back the way they were before disease came, He says, "We're not going back. I've got something much better in mind!" And so, as we finally tire out from asking and demanding that it be our way, we fall asleep and He comes and gently takes us into the next room. When we awake, it will be far better than any other day we ever experienced on earth. We will be more than healed. We will not even remember what disease was!
Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Ephesians 6: 19-20
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