Oh what sadness to the hear the words of a dear friend who asked me, "What sin did you commit for God to punish your family and daughter with this condition?", "Ha, ha just joking." Or for another friend to tell me that we were not living our lives right for God and that He turned us over to Satan to be tortured. "You know if you had enough faith, God would heal her."
Oh wow, stick a dagger in my heart and twist why don't you?
"I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you've received it, it will be yours." Mark 11:24
As a Christian, I poured over the scriptures looking for an answer. I knew the truth, but like a ship tossed about in the ocean, I still wondered. I prayed every day for her to be healed, that this terrible thing would go away. I had the faith that God would do it, greater than that of a mustard see.
"You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." Matthew 17:20
In my prayers and time of devotion, the Holy Spirit reminded me that my daughter is Justified through Christ, not my sin or hers. Our sins were nailed to the cross and we were forgiven once and for all time. What great news!
"He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:14
"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1
Though we now have peace knowing that she has not been condemned with this condition, why does she still have it, why will God not take it away? During additional prayer and study, the Holy Spirit has revealed more to us.
The first thought that really challenged me, was that not everything is of God. How can that be? Didn't God make everything? Isn't He all powerful? Didn't He give me the power to move mountains? Oh, I so wish that I could find the Bible verse that started me on this notion, but I can't. I didn't write it down, nor does it come up when I Google it. Regardless of this fact, it is truth. God created everything good. He also gave us the opportunity to make our own decisions. Not only us, but the angels too. It was this power and their wrong decision that caused Satan and his legions to be expelled from the heavens. Humans also have that same choice, quite often we make the wrong choices. Back to the thought that not everything is of God. I finally learned that God created good, Satan evil (the absence of good) and mankind consistently makes bad choices which we must learn to live with.
Mankind made decisions through out every generation; affecting the next. We punish ourselves, our children and each generation following them when we make certain bad decisions. Not every bad decision affects all generations, some will just affect the person going astray. But think about it, we put things in our bodies that we cannot and should not trust. The greed of the corporations leads to shortcuts in the development of medicinal drugs, methods that are not fully tested. Some consequences of these drugs may not be realized for a whole generation. The same issue with our food. Look at Mad Cow disease. A shortcut was developed, a means for saving money, led to cows being fed "cow parts." Not just muscle, but all the otherwise unused waste. Oh, but we stopped that years ago you say. Well lets look at something that occurs today, meat and vegetables being exposed to radiation to make them last longer. There are so many shortcuts that we take in making things less expensive and better able to mass produce - all at the expense of our health. This is our gift to ourselves and the generations following. We created this problem. I truly believe that this is the problem with my daughter's illness. But, it still begs the question, why God will not heal her.
God allows our suffering for three wonderful reasons,
1) He knows what is best for us. He allows us to learn lessons from our own bad decisions. There are many things that we don't understand and won't until we reach heaven. But remember, His son suffered far more than we can ever realize on our behalf. We can suffer a little until we get to heaven.
"That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God." Romans 8:8
"Come close to God, and God will come close to you." James 4:8a
2) He uses this suffering to draw us nearer to Him. When we are weak and defenseless, we draw really close to God. He never leaves us, but we leave Him when we feel strong and able to handle life on our own. I can't tell you how much I miss the closeness when the symptoms are manageable.
"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." James 1:2-4
God allows storms in our lives. But remember that He is right there with us getting through it.
"The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time." Psalm 34:19
"I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power." Ephesians 1:19
3) If we allow ourselves, God can use afflicted believers to reach out to afflicted non-believers, those with no hope. He can use us to reach out to each other to ensure that share His love which heals many pains.
I pray that you will know God and find comfort in Him even when bound by the consequences of mankind's poor choices.
I love this post... First, time to get new friends if the ones at the top are still around....
ReplyDeleteSecond, thank you for your honesty and the brave way you talk about you journey...
Thank you for sharing your story! Our son has CU. Thank you for sharing these verses! So true and encouraging! When asked how he felt about his condition recently, my 8 year old son said, "I am glad chose me to have this disease. I mean, he specifically chose this for me and not someone else, like my sisters..!" Oh the faith of a child is so pure! He struggles though and so do we, but we keep our eyes fixes on Jesus.
ReplyDeleteMy prayers are with your son. God will bless him in other areas of his life. God will use this to guide him. I pray the path is clear and your son bold and courageous as he takes this journey.
DeleteThe struggles are always there, but because of Christ the strength of the storms are less. May your minds be filled with understanding and your hearts with love and compassion for all.
~~"The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time." Psalm 34:19~~