04/07/2018
When we are young we have a certain amount of confidence in our bodies, and lean more on their ability to perform, but as we age our faith in them wanes, and our trust shifts more and more towards God. When we are sick and have access to a doctor our confidence is in the practice of medicine, but when we do not, then our cry is to God. The challenge for the young is to have the faith of the old, and the hardship of the patient in hospital is to deliver the prayer of the poor and unfortunate. Is your hope and faith in God strong... always?
“In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
Romans 4:18-21 ESV
When I was diagnosed in my sixties with cancer it was quite different than when I had chicken pox as a boy. In my childhood I laid in bed as my mother dabbed my sores with corn starch and water. I had total confidence in her, and in my body’s ability to heal itself. However, later in life when my body wasn’t so resilient and the diagnoses less certain, my trust shifted away from medicine, and I called out to God for mercy and healing. Dire circumstances shatter our trust in ourselves, our bodies, and in the aid of others. We seek the Lord fervently, and throw ourselves into His arms when all else fails. Why do we wait? Why must we be in the midst of great travail before our faith becomes the armor we don. Listen to the words of Andrew Murray as he speaks of our spiritual malaise as we place our trust in medicine before God...
“It is true that in the case of healing obtained by earthly remedies, many people would be more blessed in remaining ill than in recovering health, but it is quite the opposite when healing comes directly from the hand of God. In order to receive divine healing, sin must be truly confessed and renounced, one must be completely surrendered to the Lord, and the will of Jesus to take charge of the body must firmly be counted on.” - Andrew Murray
Murray lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but human nature hasn’t changed much. Our faith and relationship with God is still vying for position with ourselves, and the world that surrounds us. Youth still desires to have confidence in itself, and the help of men remains easy to see and to place trust in during hardship. The struggle for us becomes one of believing as Abraham did that an old man’s decrepit body could Father a nation if God so willed it, and like Sarah did in believing that the movement she felt in her aged womb was a miracle of the Lord.
“For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.”
Psalms 97:9 ESV
Foregoing medical attention is not the point, it would be foolish to do that... the point is in the ease of faith in God when there is no place left to turn, and how enticing it is to place our hope in our own selves, and the world when they are a viable option. This is the challenge before the faithful; to place God first in all things, and at all times. This is the struggle of every Christian... to call on the name of Jesus before all others.
In the time of Jesus human nature was no different. We read of Him healing the lame, the blind, the woman suffering from vaginal bleeding, the lepers, and raising the dead, but these are all dire needs. Would a person have travelled to seek healing from Jesus if all they were suffering from was a scratch, or a cough? Maybe they would, but that isn’t our inclination now, and I doubt it was then either; even when seeing the very real Jesus standing right in front of you, and witnessing the miracles. With Jesus standing beside us, do we resist calling His name before calling an ambulance?
“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.”
Jeremiah 17:14 ESV
Where is our trust? Do we prefer what is convenient and physically natural? Do our voices call on God for miracles in our youth just as they do in old age? Do we cry out to Jesus only when no other healer can help us? Placing God first is our challenge, placing the world and our own ability above Him is the temptation that must be overcome.
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
1 Peter 2:24-25 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for being the pinnacle of my life, and He who I turn to with all my needs, and with all my praise. I thank you Holy Father for the years that have made my body frail, because in my frailty I lean on you before all else. I thank you Father for the sickness and disease that only you can heal, fore it keeps me ever on my knees in prayer, and calling out the name Jesus in the midst of my suffering. You are great, and the King above all gods. There is no other before you, and I pray for your forgiveness in the times when I have placed my trust in others before seeking you. You are my all in all, my strong tower against the onslaught of the world, and in you is my faith, my hope, and my confidence; let no other name leave my lips before yours, let my hands reach out to you in more than desperation, and let my eyes seek your face in every moment of my day. Great are you my God, and greatly are you go be praised. You are Holy Lord, and in tears I cry out... Holy, Holy, Holy, art thou, my God Almighty.
Rich Forbes