Believer, do you suffer with illness? So did Timothy (1 Tim. 5:23). Do you have physical limitations or incapacity? Paul experienced the same (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Some will tell you that you simply need faith, and you will be healed, citing 1 Peter 2:24 - "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."
But this speaks of spiritual illness. The context dictates, as the very next verse says, "For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls." In this sense, it is true - God promises healing for every believer.
The promise of physical healing, however, may not be fulfilled in this mortal life. Paul himself did not experience it. Timothy was not miraculously relieved of his frequent stomach ailments.
While Jesus did heal a variety of ailments during His earthly ministry, these fulfilled the prophecies of such healing, as Scripture tells us: "This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: 'HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.'" (Mat. 8:17).
There is a greater purpose at work, one that is often found in infirmity. Job, when afflicted with boils from head to toe, whose wife told him to "curse God and die," instead replied, "shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:9-10). While also being chastised by his friends, he responded, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him" (Job 13:15).
Paul likewise, though he prayed for his thorn to be removed, having his request denied, proclaimed that he would revel in his weakness that God might be shown to be strong!
God is glorified in our weakness when we but trust in Him and show that trust through our words and actions.
In the end, we will all be healed. For our flesh will no longer be subject to corruption. Until then, we live in a fallen world of which illness, injury, and incapacity are part and parcel. Regardless of our circumstances then, let us glorify Him!
-----------
Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotions
Evening, August 30
"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed." Jeremiah 17:14
"I have seen His ways, and will heal him." Isaiah 57:18
It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honour is to be given to God who giveth virtue unto medicine, and bestoweth power unto the human frame to cast off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the great Physician alone; He claims it as His prerogative, "I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal"; and one of the Lord's choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that healeth thee. "I will heal thee of thy wounds," is a promise which could not come from the lip of man, but only from the mouth of the eternal God. On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, "O Lord, heal me, for my bones are sore vexed," and again, "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee." For this, also, the godly praise the name of the Lord, saying, "He healeth all our diseases." He who made man can restore man; He who was at first the creator of our nature can new create it. What a transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"! My soul, whatever thy disease may be, this great Physician can heal thee. If He be God, there can be no limit to His power. Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding, come with the limping foot of wasted energy, come with the maimed hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the ague of shivering despondency, come just as thou art, for He who is God can certainly restore thee of thy plague. None shall restrain the healing virtue which proceeds from Jesus our Lord. Legions of devils have been made to own the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been baffled. All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and thou shalt be one among them, my friend, if thou wilt but rest thyself in Him this night.
Believer, do you suffer with illness? So did Timothy (1 Tim. 5:23). Do you have physical limitations or incapacity? Paul experienced the same (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Some will tell you that you simply need faith, and you will be healed, citing 1 Peter 2:24 - "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."
But this speaks of spiritual illness. The context dictates, as the very next verse says, "For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls." In this sense, it is true - God promises healing for every believer.
The promise of physical healing, however, may not be fulfilled in this mortal life. Paul himself did not experience it. Timothy was not miraculously relieved of his frequent stomach ailments.
While Jesus did heal a variety of ailments during His earthly ministry, these fulfilled the prophecies of such healing, as Scripture tells us: "This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: 'HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.'" (Mat. 8:17).
There is a greater purpose at work, one that is often found in infirmity. Job, when afflicted with boils from head to toe, whose wife told him to "curse God and die," instead replied, "shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:9-10). While also being chastised by his friends, he responded, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him" (Job 13:15).
Paul likewise, though he prayed for his thorn to be removed, having his request denied, proclaimed that he would revel in his weakness that God might be shown to be strong!
God is glorified in our weakness when we but trust in Him and show that trust through our words and actions.
In the end, we will all be healed. For our flesh will no longer be subject to corruption. Until then, we live in a fallen world of which illness, injury, and incapacity are part and parcel. Regardless of our circumstances then, let us glorify Him!
-----------
Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotions
Evening, August 30
"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed." Jeremiah 17:14
"I have seen His ways, and will heal him." Isaiah 57:18
It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honour is to be given to God who giveth virtue unto medicine, and bestoweth power unto the human frame to cast off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the great Physician alone; He claims it as His prerogative, "I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal"; and one of the Lord's choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that healeth thee. "I will heal thee of thy wounds," is a promise which could not come from the lip of man, but only from the mouth of the eternal God. On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, "O Lord, heal me, for my bones are sore vexed," and again, "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee." For this, also, the godly praise the name of the Lord, saying, "He healeth all our diseases." He who made man can restore man; He who was at first the creator of our nature can new create it. What a transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"! My soul, whatever thy disease may be, this great Physician can heal thee. If He be God, there can be no limit to His power. Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding, come with the limping foot of wasted energy, come with the maimed hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the ague of shivering despondency, come just as thou art, for He who is God can certainly restore thee of thy plague. None shall restrain the healing virtue which proceeds from Jesus our Lord. Legions of devils have been made to own the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been baffled. All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and thou shalt be one among them, my friend, if thou wilt but rest thyself in Him this night.
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