The full soul loathes a honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. It is a blessed misery to have such an appetite for health, for life, for deliverance from this spreading malady. The Lord has sent this trial not to cast you down, but to stir a holy craving after His healing touch. When the body fails and pain abounds, the spirit learns to hunger as never before, and then the Bread of Life becomes precious indeed. He who fed the multitude with loaves and fishes can surely restore appetite and give strength. The great Physician knows your frame; He remembers that we are dust. Even now, though His hand lies heavy, it is the pressure of love, drawing you nearer to the cross where the balm of Gilead ever flows.
The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. All lesser remedies derive from Him, yes, the very least thing about Christ is charged with restorative power. Do not think only of the mighty fruit of His resurrection, but consider that even the rustle of a leaf from that tree brings life. The pain, the weariness, the struggle to eat, these are not beyond His notice. He who made the body can mend it. He who suffered the agonies of Calvary knows every pang you feel. Cast yourself upon Him, for He heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds. There is no tumor so deep, no cancer so rampant, that His healing leaves cannot reach. The Lord's touch does not merely deaden pain; it makes the nature other than it was before, transforming the very life-blood of our being. Hope thou in God, for thou shalt yet praise Him who is the health of thy countenance.
A look from Christ restores Peter, and the sound of a cock-crow becomes a messenger of mercy. So too, in this affliction, the Lord has means to bring back health and wholeness. He uses the bitter to make the sweet. That enforced bed of weakness may become a school for grace, where the Master teaches more than in seasons of ease. When He was teaching, the power of the Lord was present to heal. Let your heart sit among the learners at His feet. Hearken to His Word, for faith cometh by hearing. The great pardon of sin and the healing of disease are uttered in one breath by the Saviour: “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee.” The same voice that calmed the sea can rebuke this spreading trouble. Only trust Him. The hindrance often lies not in His willingness, but in our failure to bring our empty vessel to the fountain.
Do not think that a restoration must wait till the sickness is past. Even now, the Lord can make this trial the seedbed of a sweeter fellowship than you have ever known. The prodigal’s restoration brought the ring and the robe while he was yet in rags. As the Spirit quickens appetite, so He provides the meat. That pain which locks you in its hard casing, even there Christ can enter. His look can sever you from despair and bring the relief of holy tears. Weep before Him; pour out your complaint; then lift your head in hope. The healing virtue that flowed from His garment has not run dry. It reaches to the uttermost, to the furthest margins of the body and the soul. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth you; He will not forsake the work of His own hands.
Pray on. Faith is the hand that takes the cure. You have asked for prayer, and the church’s intercession rises like incense. Yet, remember, the great Intercessor Himself ever lives to plead for His own. He will speak the word, and the tumors will hear His voice. Though the waves roar and the pestilence walk in darkness, be still, and know that He is God. After the winter comes the spring; after the weeping, the harvest of joy. May the Lord give you to eat of the hidden manna, and may your appetite return, so that even the bitter morsels of this time become tokens of His sustaining grace. Look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. He will bring health that goes beyond the body, even the wholeness of eternal life, where there shall be no more pain, for the former things are passed away. God bless you with such a restoration. Amen.