| Points | 100 |
| Due | October 05, 2022 |
Prompt
List three or four lies that people dealing with long-term illness could believe about themselves or about God. Choose one and write out a non-cliché response (as if you were having a conversation with them), expressing truth about who God is or how God sees them that you would express verbally to them. This is an exercise in ministering truth with compassion.
Essay
When people have prolonged pain, they find reasons to make sense of their chronic anguish. When there is no answer for pain, people become hopeless and lose their will to live; as Viktor Frankl puts it, “Despair is suffering without meaning.” People often lie to themselves that God ordains their sufferings or that they are being punished for sins. Some even believe they are the byproduct of a generational curse (John 9:2-3).
The most pervasive and profound of these lies is the belief that God has ordained you to be in unrelenting pain. The incompatible view of a righteous Judge and a loving Father is not taught in the Bible. The psalmist cries to his heavenly Father in distress,
The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. (Psalm 116:3-6 ESV)
Our Father loves us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). The Lord says this of the Father, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him” (Mt 7:11)?
So why does it feel like the Lord has either forgotten or forsaken you? Why are you not healed? What is the purpose of this pain? The Lord will answer these questions to bring you into communion with Him. Dr. Reimer’s principle for thinking about the problem of pain is “God isn’t trying to fix us; He wants a relationship with us” (p. 149). A relationship is established on knowing and trusting the Lord; you will understand what is happening as you come to know the Father. Jesus tells His disciples that they are not His servants, “but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15); as His friend, Jesus reveals the Father’s will. God has not forgotten you,
Can a woman forget her sucking child? … yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. (Isa 49:15-16)
The Lord has not forsaken you either, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1Cor 10:13 ESV).
But if the Lord doesn’t intervene to alleviate your pain, doesn’t that mean He ordains it? No. The Lord is omnipotent; He can and will heal you because of His promise, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:15 ESV). Trust in His word and stay under the shadow of his healing wings (Mal 4:2). As you look at the cross where Jesus died to save you, no sickness nor disease can separate you from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39). God knows how to “deliver the godly out of temptations” (2Pet 2:9); when you come near to Him, He will draw near to you (James 4:8).
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