Stop Assuming, Don’t Be Like Job’s Buddies

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ProperlyI’m not even sure how to begin this post, but I need to get a message across to some well-meaning Christian brothers and sisters – that some things they assume will be helpful for others to hear, can sometimes cut like a knife…

 

Instead of the church being a hospital for the brokenhearted and downtrodden, sometimes the opposite thing happens; the people who are wounded and sick get more wounded and beaten up by their fellow brethren!  Brothers and sisters, it should not be like this.  When insensitive things are said to me, I really try to leave the offense where it is and “shake the dust off my sandals” and give it to God.

 

I am talking about people assuming that if you are sick in your body your faith is not as strong as it should be.  Here’s an example of a reply to me from someone on Facebook.  I know many of you have had similar encounters …

 

Isaiah 53: 3 Says Jesus was a man of pains and sickness, [Our pain and sicknesses], V4 say SURELY Jesus has taken our sicknesses and pains. V5 says by His stripes [Whips He had] we are healed. Mat 8: 17 says Jesus has taken our infirmities and sicknesses. 1 Pet 2: 24 says by the stripes of Jesus, we WERE HEALED, Jesus has paid the price for our healing,  and ALL WE HAVE TO DO is, Receive healing by faith.

 

That’s all we have to do?

 

I believe God’s Word with all my heart and confess His Word over my life.  But I’m still sick.  Many of us are still sick.  It is God’s refining fire that is made to rage around us and burn out all of the impurities that stop us from living a godly life.  It’s this refining fire that makes us put away the things of the old nature with a deep repulsion and repentance.  God will allow what He hates (sickness) to accomplish what He loves (for His glory!), and He sometimes uses afflictions to do this.

 

There are some Christians out there that refuse to accept this.  The only thing I can do, besides walking away, is pass on God’s truth by giving you just a few scriptures…

 

Man born blind – “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.  And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.””  John 9:1-3

 

God’s Perfect Knowledge of Man – “My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.”  Psalm 139:15-16

This tells me that God knew what chromosomes and genes would create blindness/disease/illness. We are created for His glory.

 

“I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right,
And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.”   Psalm 119:75

 

“And though the Lord gives you
The bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.”  Isaiah 30:20 

 

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  2 Corinthians 12:7–10 

Suffering doesn’t produce weakness in us.  Suffering highlights our weakness. It takes suffering to help us realize our human weakness and frailty.  If God’s strength is made perfect in weakness, then how great is He to help us grasp the reality of our weakness so that we can turn from our self-sufficiency (sometimes arrogance) and boast in His power!

 

“ I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”  Isaiah 45:7

 

The Death of Lazarus – “When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.””  John 11:4 

Jesus said that this sickness was for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby God is glorified in sickness, whether He heals it, or whether He makes it to continue).

 

 

God means to strip away self-sufficiency so that we can have more of Him. God means to strip away idols of health and comfort and strength to give us more of Himself. These situations make us helpless in finding answers ourselves. There is often nothing to do except cry out to God. We begin to see that God is good to ordain suffering. There is purpose in pain.

~John Piper

Anyone who takes the Bible seriously agrees that God hates suffering. Jesus spent most of his time relieving it. But when being healed becomes the only goal – ‘I’m not letting go until I get what I want’ – it’s a problem.

~Joni Eareckson Tada

 

I’d like to share this video by the Late David Wilkerson, The Healing Power of Afflictions.  It is one of the best teachings I’ve heard about on the subject of suffering.  Be blessed!