You bring forward a burden and you seek a healing. That is right, for the body cries out in its distress. But consider the weight of which the Lord speaks: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden." Sin carries its own heavy burden, a weight far more grievous than any bodily ailment. The prophet called it a heavy burden pressing down upon the soul. Is this bodily flow a trouble? It is. Yet let it be a schoolmaster to lead you to examine a deeper issue. For if we shudder at a physical malady that persists, how much more should we tremble before the sickness of the soul that, left unhealed, leads to the fire that is never quenched?
Do not treat God as a servant of our earthly comforts only. We portion out our time for trifles and sit idly, but when we come to hear the divine doctrines twice or thrice in the week, we become sick and thoroughly sated. This is a bad state of soul. You ask for a bodily healing, and He is able to grant it. But what if He withholds the immediate relief to grant you a greater healing, a medicine for the soul that is not weak? The strong soul hungers for spiritual food. Might this lingering affliction be the very medicine, unpleasant to the taste, that restores you to that health?
Lay hold of the divine promises, but do so with a trembling conscience. The Pharisee spoke truth yet was condemned because he did not couple it with the humility of the Publican. Acknowledge your need not as one making a demand, but as one utterly dependent on mercy. We have need of sackcloth and prolonged fasting more than the Ninevites, for our concern is not a perishable city but eternal punishment.
Therefore, while you rightly pray for all women in this predicament, turn this shared suffering into a shared call to vigilance. Let the day, which is at hand, call you to battle-array. Put on the arms of light, not for a fight of distress but of a solemn feast. The heavy armor of the world is abhorrent, but these spiritual arms make you bright as the sunbeam and secure. Let this trial, instead of casting you down, make your step lighter. He does not allow the day to be merely near, but puts it beside us now. Lay your burden at His feet, but reach out your hands to take up His yoke, the virtue that seems irksome only until you taste that vice is far more irksome still. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Lay hold of that, and find the healing that goes beyond the body, the everlasting blessings.