Theme: MANAGING CHRONIC ILLNESSES
Introduction
In Job 14:1,2 it is written that “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.” (Job 14:1, 2) This statement is very true as mankind is exposed to various kinds of ailments such as cancers, hypertension, diabetes, Alzheimer etc. Even for diseases for which the drugs to treat or manage them have been found, other strains of them emerge which pose fresh challenges to medical personnel and to the patients. However, the promise of God in the Scriptures is that whatsoever any individual is passing or experiencing as a form of illness will be healed by Him according to His will, in His due time, when we have faith in Him. (Jeremiah 17:14;33:6;Psalm 103:3 etc.) For the fact that health is wealth, the most important asset we have, it is a sensitive issue that requires close or serious attention. Terminal diseases present singular challenges to people of faith. They are yet to be fully understood and no cures are available. Since the secret things belong to God, it is to Him we must turn in matters too high for us to understand or solve. – Deuteronomy 29:29.
Text: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” – Psalm 51:5
Comment: God did not create man to be sick at all. Man was created perfect, to praise God and enjoy the riches of the earth in peace and happiness. Sickness was brought into the world by the devil following man’s fall in the Garden of Eden. When God passed the sentence on man, compelling the couple to leave the Garden, they went to live in a highly inhospitable environment, that was a far cry from the perfect setting they were used to. It was the devil who struck Job with sore boils from head to toe. (Job 2:7) It was Satan the devil who kept a woman bound for eighteen years with an infirmity before she had the grace to be loosed by Jesus Christ. (Luke 13:16) Having been born in sin we are all subject to its consequences, which include illnesses of every sort. (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12) The diseases and general distress people face in these last days, known as perilous times, have multiplied due to the fact that the devil is full of wrath, knowing that his time is short. (2 Timothy 3:1-5; Revelation 12:10-12) “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” asked Apostle Paul, and he replied thus: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24, 25) It is only by the power of God that we can be saved from the scourge of diseases that afflict mankind. See Romans 7: 24, 25.