This is the sort of morning when everything feels heavy, your head thick with the fog of illness, your limbs slow, your spirit worn thin by the same old anxieties about provision and health. You love your family, you want to stand strong for them, but today you feel instead like a man trying to hold up a tent with a single trembling pole. I know that weariness. And I want you to know something: Jesus is not far from you in it. He is near, and His nearness is your strength.
You spoke of casting out spirits, of poverty, of sickness, and I hear the earnestness in that cry. But let me lift your eyes higher than the enemy’s growl. The great work has already been done. The bonds that once held you have been snapped. It was not possible for death to keep its grip on the Lord Jesus, and because you are in Him, it is not possible for any dark thing to keep its grip on you forever. The head of the serpent has been bruised. Oh yes, we still feel the hissing and the dry scales brushing our heel, but he is not the master of the house. You have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. That is past tense, child of God. Done. The enemy may prowl, but he cannot own you. Sickness is not your portion; it is an intruder on the Saviour’s property. Poverty is not your destiny; you are an heir of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Even now, while your body aches and your account runs low, your true estate is entailed upon you in the covenant signed with blood.
There is a picture in the Scriptures of trees growing on either side of the river of life, their leaves given for the healing of the nations. They bear fruit every month, and their leaves never wither. That is where your life is hidden, not in this passing fog of influenza, not in the shifting sands of what your purse holds, but in the paradise of God where the curse has no writ and where every moan will one day turn to music. Right now you can only sniffle and groan, and that is not sin, it is the natural sound of one who feels the brokenness of this poor earth. But faith can still whisper what the body cannot yet sing: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Not because you are strong, but because He has made the work of your life His business. He who began a good work in you will carry it on until the day of Christ Jesus.
And what of the cold and the flu? Our Lord never wastes a fever. Sometimes He lets the body lie low so that the soul may sit up and take notice. He quiets the outward noises, the busyness, the endless scrambling, so that you may hear His voice the clearer. It was when the Israelites were shut in by the Red Sea and the mountains that they saw the Deliverer break through. It was when David was in the cave that the psalms grew deepest. This sickroom may be, if you will yield it to Him, the place where you learn that He is your portion when bread is dear, your health when medicine fails, your song when strength ebbs away. And your family, are they not His as well? The Shepherd who carries the lambs in His bosom will not forget the little flock that gathers around your table. Commit them, name by name, to Him who bottles every tear. He keeps Israel, and He neither slumbers nor sleeps.
Let the dog of unbelief be muzzled now. It does you no good to give a tongue to every dark thought that scratches at the door. Faith has a right to speak too, and her words are sweet. Say it softly: “He brought me forth, and He will bring me forth again. He has delivered, He does deliver, and He will yet deliver.” The Christ who rose from the tomb with no corruption upon Him will not let your life rot with despair. The same power that rolled the stone away is working in you this very hour, keeping you, cleansing you, providing for you in ways you cannot yet trace. The black-edged envelope you hold today may carry inside it a love-letter from your Father’s heart. Do not mistake the wrapping for the gift.
Rest now, dear soul, in the hollow of the hand that holds the oceans. The fever will pass, the provision will come, and at the last, when the trumpet sounds, you will rise from dust richer than you ever dreamed and strong beyond all weakness. Not one feeble person will be among the tribes of the ransomed.
---
Lord Jesus, you who took our sicknesses and bore our pains, look now upon this weary one. Lay your cooling hand upon the fevered brow; speak peace to the troubled mind. Rebuke the intruder, break the chains of old fear, and pour the oil of your comfort into every wound. For the family, be shield and provider; for the body, be physician and life. Lift the eyes of faith above the mist until all shadows flee away. We ask nothing for our own glory, but only for the honour of your name. Amen.