I was planning an Advent devotional which is actually not too difficult to craft. But a nagging thought prevented me from proceeding with the original plan. ‘Do something for those who may not enjoy Christmas’ was a thought that grew. This week, I would like to write for those who are ill or have loved ones who are ill. There will be a desire to cherish Christmas mixed with a sense that the usual tempo has been disrupted by Covid-19 and illness. Yet, perhaps, without the incessant activity typically associated with Christmas, it may be more meaningful as it becomes more God-filled.
As we grow older, illness gets more common. Yet, few Christians have carefully thought through God’s guidance on this prior to falling ill. The spanner of illness disrupts our way of life but also opens the door to opportunities like reconciliation. What does the Bible say to us about responding to illness? There is a bewildering range of information in the church scene: From artificial stoicism to declarations that healing is a lottery ticket waiting to be cashed in.
As we prayerfully ponder over this topic this week, may it help us to know God a bit better, prepare us to handle illness slightly better, be it in our own lives or in the lives of our loved ones and those whom God allows us the privilege of ministering to. I would like to encourage you to go through this entire series as the overall balance in perspective is a key part of the exercise.
Read 2 Chronicles 14-16:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Chronicles%2014-16&versio n=ESV
Reflect
1. How did Asa start as a king? 2. How did he continue as a King?
3. How did he end as a king? What led to this outcome? 4. What was his attitude towards the words of Hanani? 5. Is God against Asa from seeking help from physicians? 6. What was God against?
How does this devotion influence the way you approach your current decisions?
By Ps Ng Liang Wei
When a serious illness strikes, one of the key desires that often arise is the desire for good relationships.
Read and meditate on these words: Colossians 3:13
“Be tolerant of one another and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you also should forgive.”
Hebrews 12:14-15
“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
Apply
1) Pray and ask God to put in your mind a list of people you need to forgive. Write out your list.
2) Make a decision to forgive with no exception. 3) Lean on God specifically for the strength to forgive.
4) Ask for wisdom to take remedial actions if any. Do or say only that which God guides. Nothing more and nothing less.
5) Expect that having forgiven, thoughts will recur. With time, persistent forgiveness helps these thoughts fade.
When you forgive others, you often feel better. You need all the emotional energy to face the challenges of the illness. Don’t waste it on unforgiveness.
Read and meditate on the following verses prayerfully: Matthew 5:23-24
“So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to God.”
Apply
1) Ask the Spirit to provide you with a list of people you have sinned against. Do include your loved ones.
2) Have you offended or hurt anyone that you have not sought forgiveness? 3) Is this obstructing your relationship with God?
4) Ponder over how much God has forgiven you. 5) Pray for reconciliation in specific relationships.
6) Are there specific steps that you need to take? Ask the Lord for His wisdom. Start with the one closest to you, eg. your spouse.
1 Peter 3:7
“You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honour as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
Live right and our prayers will have greater clarity and be unhindered.
Scripture Reading: John 5:1-15
‘Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called
Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.’
Reflect
● As you read the verses above, which verse suggests a link between sin and illness?
● As it is a narrative story, does this mean that every illness we have is linked to our sinful attitudes and lifestyle?
● Ask the Holy Spirit to point out to you the sins in our lives that are withholding health from us, if any. Confess, turn away and repent accordingly.
In churches that are anxious to distance themselves from Pentecostal movements and “name it and claim it” movements, we can sometimes forget that Scripture does link between sin with illness in some cases. Do read the devotional tomorrow as well. Testimony
A certain individual in a management role was having severe and frequent
headaches. As he prayed, he realised that it was not a matter of dealing with stress and anxiety; he harboured great greed in his heart. As he confessed his specific sin of greed, the headache receded.
Scripture Reading: John 9:1-5
‘As [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”’
Reflect
● Compared to yesterday’s devotional, what is the relationship between illness and sin?
● What is the purpose of this man’s illness?
● Repent collectively as a body of Christ: that we often treat the sufferings of others as questions to be answered rather than invitations to extend relief. ● How was Jesus different?
● How does this story affect the way we approach illness in our lives? Testimony
A lady who was gravely ill in a country where acknowledging Jesus can be punished by death heard about a preacher who was preaching in another area. She started praying on her own and told the Lord, “if you would only heal me, I know you can. I want to move towards you.” She orientated herself in the direction of the area where she knew the preacher was going to speak and dragged herself towards it. As she did so, she experienced a miraculous healing. She subsequently brought her family to the Lord. Her son was quite instrumental in introducing me to contextualised missions.
What I am not saying:
1. I am not advocating a formula. Eg. physically orientating equals miracles. Many Singaporeans would like and love formulas.
2. I am not saying that God heals everyone. I have many stories about faithful Christians who were not healed as well.
What I am saying:
to be to establish connection with God and to partake of His glory. We are to confess all known sins.
2. To partake of His glory is to catch a glimpse of how beautiful God is and to hunger for that above all else.
3. To allow our lives, through our difficulties, to demonstrate His glory in
whatever way He deems fit. Our sufferings are an invitation from the Lord to reach out to Him and join Him in the fellowship of His suffering on the cross. In so doing, we catch a glimpse of how much He desires to draw us towards wholeness. All of creation pines for that perfection that His death made available. This is the quiet freedom that we enjoy as Christians.
4. Be open to miraculous intervention. Our hope is in Him, not in the
intervention. The experiences in our lives are a corral towards Him, who is the source of all good. Miracles likely happen more often than Presbyterians think and less often than Pentecostals want. Where a miracle is needed for our sanctification, He will give it to us. Much like if suffering is needed, He, too, will allow it. Go through the reasons for unanswered prayers in the Bible as a part of the process of inviting God to work deeply in our souls. Go through that first with a fellow believer before you assume that God does not want to heal you miraculously or through your doctors.
Scripture Reading: John 11:1-16
“Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
How does knowing that human suffering may simply be a pointer towards God’s glory make you feel?
In this case, Jesus is using the death and resurrection of Lazarus to point to his impending death and resurrection.
Why are we never the centre of attention? What harm can result from that? In prayer, move yourself away from the centre of your own attention, lean on God
goodness. He is inviting you and I to partake of His glory. Pray
Dear Lord, as vessels who have laboured strenuously because our own pain, needs, wants, desires have been at the core of our being, and in so doing brought us
incredible strife and pain, help us to see the beauty of Your glory and choose to partake in it as we respond to Your invitation. In Jesus’ name, amen.
A friend of mine lost both her children. The pain was beyond description. The child grew in her faith towards the end of her journey. One of her last comments was “that (pointing to heaven) is real, this (earthly possessions) is not.” I will not go into an in-depth analysis of what was said, but obviously in the mind of a young girl, she caught a glimpse of the beauty of Jesus and what He was inviting her towards. As a doctor, I have had the privilege of being with people as they pass on. There is something so special about those who pass away into the arms of Jesus. A man who had converted to Christianity in the past had denied Jesus due to external
persecution. He was dying and we were in the slums – a place that was hot, humid and dirty. We talked about Judas that day. We talked about knowing Jesus and Peter’s denial. We talked about how he could be Peter and not Judas. Lastly, we prayed. At the end of our time together, he shared that he wanted to finish his journey with Jesus. As we prayed together that day, the slum house felt like it was filled with light and palpable glory. The humidity and discomfort gave way to such quiet peace and beauty.
This can be yours, if you surrender your whole heart to Him. He ended our session by encouraging me to continue my path along sanctification and holiness. A few days later, he slipped away. When illness strikes and energy fades, simply lean on Jesus.
Read through and meditate on Psalm 23. Psalm 23
“The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
Apply
Craft a prayer to the Lord. Encourage someone. It is time to walk towards God’s glory and away from self-absorption with whatever time we have. Don’t rush. God’s will, God’s timing and God’s ways. Connect deeply with Him.