Incurable FaithSample

PURPOSE IN YOUR PAIN

When people’s comments reveal that they think I should just “get on with” my life and throw off the constraints of pain and fatigue, I feel embarrassed that I suffer from health issues, as if I’d be healed if I just tried harder.

The Bible is such a comfort to me when I am having thoughts like this. Jesus encountered many people sick with pain or disease, yet he never said, “Just get over it! Exercise more, stop thinking about it, and you will be better!”

I once met a health writer at a Christian conference. This man had written a book about what he felt were biblical solutions for disease. I was amazed to read that he thought illness was a direct punishment for sin.

How did Jesus respond to a similar misconception when His disciples asked whose sin was responsible for a man’s blindness? Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned . . . but this happened so that the works of God might be dis­played in him” (John 9:3). He was not suggesting that the man and his parents were not sinners. He was correcting the disciples in their mistaken belief that the man’s physical ailment was a result of sin.

Jesus taught the disciples, and all of us who read the account, that there is a higher purpose behind physical af­fliction. Perhaps our sovereign God allows suffering so He can display His tremendous power through us.

God knows your innermost wants, and He has intentionally sifted every circumstance in your life through His very loving hands. He promises to use every circumstance to work good in our lives (Romans 8:28).

When trials lead me to question my faith, these two truths restore it: God is sovereign, and God is good. Since this is so, I can trust Him even when illness makes life difficult to bear. I hunger for His healing in my life. But most of all, I long for God to be glorified through me.

Jesus, let Your glory be revealed in my life amid my brokenness, my pain, and my insufficiency. Be my strength, and enable me to walk Your path daily. In Your name, I pray. Amen.

We hope this plan encouraged you. Learn more about Incurable Faith by Andrea Herzer here.