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Rest, Wisdom, and the Stewardship of the Body

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  Cooperating with the design God built into us Scripture never teaches that faith replaces wisdom. Proverbs is full of practical instruction for the body. “My son, attend to my words… for they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:20-22). The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). After illness we are stewards of a weakened temple, and stewardship requires rest, patience, and wise choices. The Lord Himself established the pattern of rest. Even the land was to keep a Sabbath (Leviticus 25). Jesus often withdrew to rest and pray. After major illness the recovering believer must resist the urge to “prove” he is fine by overdoing. Wisdom says: sleep when the body needs sleep, eat what strengthens rather than what merely tastes good, walk as strength allows, and refuse the pride that pushes past safe limits. This is not legalism. It is obedience to the God who designed the body and who still gives wisdom liberally to those...
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Prayer, the Word, and the Prayer of Faith

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  The spiritual means God has given for recovery James 5:14-16 is not only for the crisis of acute sickness; it continues into the season of recovery. “The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up… Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Prayer is not a last resort after the doctors have done all they can. It is the ongoing work of the recovering believer. We pray for strength, for wisdom in the daily decisions of recovery, for protection from setbacks, and for a heart that remains soft toward the Lord. We also keep the Word of God before us. Psalm 119:50 says, “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.” The same Word that gives life to the soul sustains the body in its healing. Many recoveries are hindered not by lack of medical care but by neglected confession, lingering bitterness, or prayerlessness. The Lord often ti...
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Location: Dublin, IN, USA
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Healing After the Storm

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  A second series on recovery — what Scripture teaches about healing after illness and how we cooperate with the God who restores Brothers and sisters, the previous series looked at living by faith when sickness leaves us unable to help ourselves. Now we turn to the other side of the valley: the slow, often frustrating work of healing and recovery. The Bible does not leave us without light here. God is the Lord who heals (Exodus 15:26). He also calls His people to walk wisely, rest obediently, pray continually, and receive the means of grace He has provided. These six posts are written for the fundamentalist Christian who holds the inerrant Word as final authority. They reject both the despair that says God no longer heals and the error that treats healing as something we can demand by formula. We look to the whole counsel of God for the path of recovery.   The Lord Who Heals Thee Beginning recovery by fixing our eyes on the Healer Himself After illness, the first and greatest...
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Location: Dublin, IN, USA
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Still Useful to God — Ministry from the Place of Weakness

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  The eternal perspective that keeps us from despair Even when the body can do almost nothing, the believer is not finished. Paul, writing of his own afflictions, said the God of all comfort comforts us so that we may be able to comfort others with the same comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). The sickbed can become a place of intercession, of quiet testimony, of demonstrating that Christ is enough. Romans 8:28 remains true in the hospital room and the recovery chair: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” The outward man may be perishing, but the eternal weight of glory is being worked in us (2 Corinthians 4:17). Present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed (Romans 8:18). You may not be able to preach, teach, or serve in the ways you once did. You can still pray. You can still give thanks. You can still bear witness by the quiet confidence that whether we l...
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Location: Dublin, IN, USA
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Casting All Your Care — Receiving Help Without Shame

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  Humility when we must lean on others First Peter 5:7 is simple and sweeping: “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” Yet many of us find it harder to cast the care of being a burden than the care of the sickness itself. We never wanted to need help. We never wanted family or church to rearrange their lives around our weakness. Scripture does not shame the one who must receive. It shames the pride that refuses to receive. The early church held all things common so that none would lack (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-35). Pure religion visits the fatherless and widows in their affliction (James 1:27). When we are the one in affliction, allowing the saints to fulfill that calling is part of our obedience. There is a holy humility in saying, “I cannot do this alone.” It is the same humility that lets the Spirit help our infirmities (Romans 8:26). It is the same humility that lets the body of Christ function. The Lord who cares for you has also placed people around you to be the ...
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Location: Dublin, IN, USA
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