It is no small trial when the body refuses its food and the tongue cannot taste its sweetness. Yet even in this, the soul may feast upon a better portion. The loss of natural taste may well drive us to seek after that which the prophet meant when he wrote, Taste and see that the Lord is good, for there is no want to them that fear him. When the appetite for earthly bread is gone, hunger still for the Bread of Life.
Weakness, dizziness, and fever so drain a man of all his strength that he seems to have none left of his own. But this is the very moment for faith to cry out, When there remains no strength in you, nor any ability of any kind or sort, then fling yourself upon the Divine strength. All our natural vigour, however great it once seemed, comes at last to its end; yet they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. The greatest glory of a Christian’s strength is this, that it lies in God alone. Not in health, not in the flush of youth, not in any power of the flesh, but in Him who is ever strong.
I do not ask you merely to pray for strength, but to look to the mighty Healer Himself. There is an abundance of healing power in Jesus Christ, for the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Even the least thing about Him is charged with restoring virtue. Calvary is the place for the healing balm rather than for the lancet and the knife; at the cross there is both pardon and recovery, forgiveness and cure. When the Sun of Righteousness arises, He brings healing in His wings, and many a weary child of God has renewed his strength at the remembrance of pardoning mercy.
The sick man cannot work, cannot even enter the house where the little one dwells. That prudence is wise. But though he be cut off from men, he is not cut off from his God. It is wonderful what sick people can do even when they can do nothing, their very helplessness becomes a plea before the throne of grace. Let him, then, lie before the Lord Jesus in spirit, hoping and expecting both forgiveness and healing. God can restore the taste, remove the fever, and give strength to body and soul with a word. There are seasons when the healing power is more than usually manifest, times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; pray that this may be such a day.
Let us join together and bring this case before the Great Physician. God will either grant the healing we desire, or He will do yet better and turn the sickness to a deeper blessing. In either event, the glory of our strength must never lie in any of these things, it must lie in God alone. To Him we commit this dear soul, confident that He hath said, I will strengthen them in the Lord, and His word cannot fail.
