Your body’s affliction is known to the Lord, and He is not slow to hear the cry of His children. The fever that wracks the flesh, the flux that empties the body, these are not beyond the reach of the hand that once touched Peter’s mother-in-law and, in one moment, not only banished the sickness but restored her full strength, so that she rose and served. Do not imagine your healing requires a long convalescence or the slow arts of physicians. The same power that made a whole man healthy on the Sabbath, a man utterly undone, can in an instant command your body to be still and sound. Therefore, do not judge by mere appearances, looking only at the severity of the symptoms and despairing. Look instead to the nature of the Healer. Call upon Him with the same urgency with which Epaphroditus was sent to Paul, without procrastination, without delay. For we rejoice not only in hearing of health restored, but in the very experience of deliverance coming contrary to all hope.
Yet, while you pray for the belly’s relief, let this affliction also remind you of a deeper truth. The love of ease and the desire for many things often make the soul sicker than the body. There is a poverty worse than an empty purse, and a richness truer than a full one. He is truly rich who stands in need of nothing, and he bears his sickness best who uses it to remember the true riches of eternal life. Just as wealth left at the gate cannot profit a man in Hades, so the discomfort of the flesh, when borne with thanksgiving, can become a medicine for the spirit. Do not let this trial make you dull of hearing the Word. That dullness comes from earthly cares and carnal strifes, weighing down the soul like a heavy meal. Instead, let this purging be a reminder that the pollutions of sin are far more dangerous than any bodily flux. If we are so eager to be rid of a physical ailment that humbles us for a few days, how much more should we flee to the Physician of souls to be cleansed from the sickness that drowns men in eternal perdition?
Approach the throne of grace with confidence, but also with self-examination. Confess any known sin, for sin enfeebles prayer. And as you ask for the restoring of your health, ask also for a pitiful heart, like the poor man Lazarus, not the stony heart of the rich man whose plenty could not save him. For the prayer of a humble and merciful heart pierces the clouds. The Lord, who saw the faith of those who opened the roof, who stopped the issue of blood with a word, is the same yesterday and today. Do not cease to entreat Him, even if the healing tarries. For often, when the cure seems delayed, He is working a greater deliverance, uprooting pride and planting patience, until at last, by one mighty blow of grace, the whole tree of the affliction falls. I will join my prayers to yours, that He who created the body will rebuke this infirmity, renew your strength like the eagle’s, and grant you not only to walk in health again, but to serve Him with a zeal made purer by this furnace. May it be so.