Why the panic?

Exodus 15; Job 33; Luke 18; 2 Corinthians 3

The big story in recent news is panic over a virus. People are fearful to the point of stripping stores of major supplies, cutting back on travel, and not shaking hands. However, a few have pointed out that cancer, heart attacks, even suicides, mosquitoes and other human beings are killing more people than this virus. Some dare to say that the media is blowing this out of proportion.

Medics say it is no different than any other virus. I’ve read that ordinary influenzas will infect between 29,000,000 and 41,000,000 people in the United States during the 2019-20 season and result in 16,000 to 41,000 deaths in the US alone.

I’ve not checked out these numbers but even if they are exaggerated, they still suggest ratings may be more important to the media than scaring people out of their senses.

That said, who wants to get sick? Life may be short but most of us want it to be sweet. When God led His people out of Egypt, they were just like us, complaining about the first thing that went wrong — a lack of potable water. He gave Moses power to fix that problem but it was only the first in many tests to see whether they would trust Him or not.

I feel a bit like we are being tested too. Right now that ‘we’ refers to myself and my hubby. We plan to travel next week, a bit of a trip that will take us through several major airports. I talked to a friend yesterday that was horrified when I told her about it. She figures the virus is going to hit everyone, but I figure that God is sovereign over sickness and over who gets what. Nonetheless, my faith is being challenged by that thing called ‘fear’ even though I know fear is not from God. The Bible is clear about that:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)

 “. . . for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

This morning, Exodus adds to these thoughts with the promise He made to His people, a promise that has validity today:

 . . . There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” (Exodus 15:25–26)

Medical people know that the stress of life affects our wellness. They also know that a relaxed person who is not anxious heals quicker than an upset, worried complainer. One doctor wrote a book on this topic agreeing that obedience to God usually results in good health. It is called, “None of These Diseases.”

This is not to say sickness means a person of faith is disobedient. Job’s ‘friends’ thought so. One of them said, “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed . . . .” (Job 33:19). But there are other reasons for sickness. For instance, Job’s faith was tested by it. A man born blind was that way until Jesus healed him and God was glorified. Most often, sickness is the avenue by which He takes His people home.

At the same time, Exodus 15:26 says He is our healer. My hubby was healed of one ‘incurable’ ailment years ago. This week, his oncologist looked at his blood work and called it a “train wreck” then attributed his health to “some sort of divine intervention.” As hubby says, we wake up each day by the grace of God.

APPLY: this is a faith-encourager. The temptation is to worry that travel will make us open to a virus attack, but life with Jesus is not about being a slave to fear. The answer is to trust God, listen for His instruction and do what He says. He might tell us to stay home, but today the word is to trust Him.

Jesus heals

How could I not believe that God heals after watching my husband in the past few years?

First, he had pancreatitis and could not digest fats. He took enzymes so he could eat without problems. During that time, our pastor said he would have a prayer time for healing every time he preached on a text that was about healing. He called the elders to the front of the service and they prayed with and for anyone who went forward.

My husband, an elder at that time, prayed for several people. He never mentioned his own ailment to anyone, but it seems God healed him during that first healing service. Even though it is not supposed to just ‘go away’ he no longer has pancreatitis.

He’s had a few other things that required medical attention. People prayed for him, and his healing came extremely quick, faster than normal. Then he was diagnosed with CLL last June. Since then, people began praying about that. He has had no symptoms, and at this time, seems completely unaffected by this chronic form of leukemia.

Now this heart attack. He got into the hospital within forty-five minutes of his first symptoms, which was good, but was given a triple overdose of blood thinners, which was bad. Nevertheless, he was alert throughout, even during the insertion of the stent in his heart artery. He got up from that process and walked to the Gurney, much to the surprise of the medical staff. During all that time, people were praying.

At the moment, he is downstairs unloading the dishwasher and making breakfast. He is obeying orders that forbid him from working or driving, but is walking, taking calls, catching up with his e-mail, and feeling wonderful. It is almost as if last week did not happen.

While doctors, and good general health and self-care play a part, Jesus is the healer. Mark 6:56 says, “Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well.”

Whenever I read about the healing that Jesus did, I notice one thing. He didn’t pick and choose; He healed “as many as touched Him.” Sometimes people pray for healing and when it doesn’t happen, they fear they didn’t have enough faith, or they were not asking right, or they have done some horrible thing and God is mad at them. However, Jesus didn’t pick only ‘good’ people to heal; He healed whoever came.

During our infrequent healing services at church, the pastor carefully points out that God has not changed. He still heals, and we must believe that He can, but we must also trust His decisions. Some sickness has a purpose behind it. In another church in another part of the world, another pastor explained that God allows sickness sometimes so He can heal it and be glorified, sometimes to chasten sin, sometimes to draw people closer to Himself, and sometimes because that is the method by which He is going to take a person home to be with Him. He may not heal because being sick is part of His plan for that person.

What has been affirmed to me this past week is that when dying is not your turn, it is not your turn. God controls life and death. My husband, had he not been cared for so quickly, would have died. The blood thinner could have killed him. But God has His hand on all of this; He put it into Bob’s head to go quickly to the ER, and somehow He kept that attack and even the blood thinner from doing what they were trying to do. It was not his turn.

Why does God heal one person and let another die? That is too big a question for me. Someday I will know. Right now, I know that whatever He does, it is based on a knowledge and a mercy that will take an eternity for me to understand and appreciate.