DOCTOR'S ORDERS
A few years before my wife left me, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was still in an early stage, and by all outward appearances she was in excellent shape. She wasn’t “sick†in any way that could be seen or felt, but we believed the doctors when they told us she was in very grave danger.
It’s often said of cancer that the treatment is worse than the disease. Biopsies, surgeries, steroids and multiple rounds of chemotherapy afflicted her with pain, took away her hair, weakened her to the point of exhaustion and made controlling her weight impossible. For two years our home was full of prescription medications, all prescribed to treat the side effects of the treatment….not the cancer itself. Treating the cancer was the doctor’s job….all we could do was carry on and trust him.
I don’t know how chemotherapy works. But I know the heartache of watching someone go through it. In the moments when she could barely walk up a flight of stairs or when she felt nauseous, it seemed completely unfathomable that it could be helping her in any way. All I could see was someone crippled, brought to their very lowest by something we were promised would save her. In those moments, we could only trust that the doctors knew more than we did…that they truly had her best interest in mind.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11
The doctors, of course, were right. In order for my seemingly-healthy wife to be TRULY healthy, she had to get sick. By the same token, God knows that your soul and marriage will need to become sick, broken, or even completely destroyed…because in that sickness and brokenness is eternal healing that only the Great Physician can prescribe…and only He knows how it works.
Is right now the dark moment when the treatment for your broken life or marriage has brought you to the floor and you can’t see anything but the side effects? Are you seeing your absent spouse living an unchanged life devoted to themselves, with no indication that the treatment is working? Don’t ever forget that your Physician treats, heals and resurrects in realms you cannot see, and He alone knows when the healing will begin.
If you refused treatment for cancer because you were afraid of the painful side effects, you will have written your own death sentence, in addition to refusing even the possibility of healing. So it is with your marriage. Your Physician’s treatment will hurt, more than you ever thought was possible. But this pain will purge unforgiveness, anger, bitterness and other sins from your heart if you continue to have faith that this “medication†is being administered by someone who knows the day, hour and second when the treatment will end….resulting in a healthier, refined You who is better equipped to be the Godly partner your spouse will need.
So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. 1 Peter 4:19
I don’t mean to imply in any way that God destroyed your marriage or convinced your spouse to leave you; that kind of evil can only come from the enemy. But the brutal side effects that the enemy intends to break you are re-purposed by God as tools for healing. Think about the testimonies you’ve undoubtedly read on this website. Every single one is an example of God using evil to create good, to heal unions and glorify Himself. That can be you, if you submit to the treatment that you fear so much. But you won’t go through it alone.
For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 1 Peter 2:19
This verse tells us why we should put up with the kind of pain that most people would never dream of enduring. We endure because we are conscious of the existence of the Physician who will be with us every step of the way…and take away the pain when it has accomplished His will for our lives and marriages.
Jesus has already been through all you’re enduring…and more. We may suffer because of our consciousness of Him, but remember that Jesus endured His suffering because He was conscious of us. His sacrifice saved us….and yours may save your spouse, in His name.
But first you must trust your Physician.
Following doctors orders in California,
Benjamin
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
A few years before my wife left me, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was still in an early stage, and by all outward appearances she was in excellent shape. She wasn’t “sick†in any way that could be seen or felt, but we believed the doctors when they told us she was in very grave danger.
It’s often said of cancer that the treatment is worse than the disease. Biopsies, surgeries, steroids and multiple rounds of chemotherapy afflicted her with pain, took away her hair, weakened her to the point of exhaustion and made controlling her weight impossible. For two years our home was full of prescription medications, all prescribed to treat the side effects of the treatment….not the cancer itself. Treating the cancer was the doctor’s job….all we could do was carry on and trust him.
I don’t know how chemotherapy works. But I know the heartache of watching someone go through it. In the moments when she could barely walk up a flight of stairs or when she felt nauseous, it seemed completely unfathomable that it could be helping her in any way. All I could see was someone crippled, brought to their very lowest by something we were promised would save her. In those moments, we could only trust that the doctors knew more than we did…that they truly had her best interest in mind.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11
The doctors, of course, were right. In order for my seemingly-healthy wife to be TRULY healthy, she had to get sick. By the same token, God knows that your soul and marriage will need to become sick, broken, or even completely destroyed…because in that sickness and brokenness is eternal healing that only the Great Physician can prescribe…and only He knows how it works.
Is right now the dark moment when the treatment for your broken life or marriage has brought you to the floor and you can’t see anything but the side effects? Are you seeing your absent spouse living an unchanged life devoted to themselves, with no indication that the treatment is working? Don’t ever forget that your Physician treats, heals and resurrects in realms you cannot see, and He alone knows when the healing will begin.
If you refused treatment for cancer because you were afraid of the painful side effects, you will have written your own death sentence, in addition to refusing even the possibility of healing. So it is with your marriage. Your Physician’s treatment will hurt, more than you ever thought was possible. But this pain will purge unforgiveness, anger, bitterness and other sins from your heart if you continue to have faith that this “medication†is being administered by someone who knows the day, hour and second when the treatment will end….resulting in a healthier, refined You who is better equipped to be the Godly partner your spouse will need.
So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. 1 Peter 4:19
I don’t mean to imply in any way that God destroyed your marriage or convinced your spouse to leave you; that kind of evil can only come from the enemy. But the brutal side effects that the enemy intends to break you are re-purposed by God as tools for healing. Think about the testimonies you’ve undoubtedly read on this website. Every single one is an example of God using evil to create good, to heal unions and glorify Himself. That can be you, if you submit to the treatment that you fear so much. But you won’t go through it alone.
For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 1 Peter 2:19
This verse tells us why we should put up with the kind of pain that most people would never dream of enduring. We endure because we are conscious of the existence of the Physician who will be with us every step of the way…and take away the pain when it has accomplished His will for our lives and marriages.
Jesus has already been through all you’re enduring…and more. We may suffer because of our consciousness of Him, but remember that Jesus endured His suffering because He was conscious of us. His sacrifice saved us….and yours may save your spouse, in His name.
But first you must trust your Physician.
Following doctors orders in California,
Benjamin
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
