Sufferings

God do not cause sufferings. God allows sufferings. Sickness and disability touch so many of us that we cannot avoid the issue Through the rejection, betrayal, enslavement, and wrongful imprisonment of a man named Joseph, we see someone who eventually was able to say to those who had hurt him, "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good" ( Genesis 50:20). We go through the sufferings of life God has a purpose including illnesses. His purpose is to manifest the character of our spiritual life to everybody around us and to us as well. His purpose is to humble us because of His multitude of blessings poured out upon us and His purpose is to draw us into the intimacy of His glorious presence. The pruning principle. It is true that God can heal any illness or disease! Yet, because this world is full of sin, it is also susceptible to disease, poverty and hardship. To truly have faith is to suffer and still praise His name, to have difficulties and still know God cares, to be in pain and still remember that one day there will be no pain, to experience trials and still know God is listening, to know that God does not always heal and still believe that He is God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

There are thousands of many great men and women of God have glorified Him through their physical infirmities. One example: Christian Hymn writer Fanny Crosby. She was blinded at the age of six weeks, yet was free from bitterness. A preacher once said to her, "I think it is a great pity that the master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you." Fanny replied, "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind!" "Why?" asked the surprised minister. "Because when I get to heaven, the first face I that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior." Her 8000 gospel songs are enduring, joyful testimonies of God's sustaining grace in her life. The LORD has been glorified through her illness! Many of her songs are sang by many in our Churches for many years and we are still singing TODAY. Another:JONI EARECKSON TADA Founder and President of Joni and Friends Joni and Friends is an international outreach which seeks to bring the gospel to the over 600 million people with disabilities worldwide. A diving accident in 1967 left Mrs. Tada a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, unable to use her hands.

Testimony from Joni: I really dove into God's Word with both sleeves rolled up to understand the Lord's perspective on healing and I can say now that I am so grateful for the wisdom of God. ...John 5 talks about where Jesus once visited the Pool of Bethesda, and among all these disabled people He touched and healed a man paralyzed on a straw mat for over 30 years. I remember I was in the dark at night. After my bible was closed I'd picture myself at that same pool. I would imagine me dressed in maybe a rough burlap coat lying on a straw mat, perhaps even near that man that Jesus healed, and I would plead with God in prayer, "Oh, Lord, do not pass me by." I would even sing to Him that hymn, "Jesus, Jesus, hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by." I would pray that, and yet I was never healed. Well, as you know, years later, and I began to get my spiritual act together with the Lord Jesus and I realized He was using my affliction, my paralysis to push me up against a spiritual wall with my back, getting me to seriously consider His lordship in my life - years later - in fact, just last year my husband Ken and I had a chance to visit Jerusalem, and we chose to do the old city on a hot, dry, dusty day, midday, when we knew no tour buses would be around and we'd have the place pretty much to ourselves. And Ken was pushing me in my wheelchair down the cobblestone streets and we arrived at the sheepgate, made a lefthand turn, and there, a couple of hundred yards down the path, it opened up into this grand old ruins of - my goodness, it's the pool of Bethesda. Ken, I said, would you look at this. And although you could not make out the colonnades because the ruins were crumbling and tumbling, and there's no water in the pool yet, the place was empty, and as I leaned against the guardrail with my elbow, Ken hopped the guardrail to jog down to the bottom of the pool to see if there was any water in one of the cisterns. And while he was gone and the wind was warm and dry and the sun was hot, tears began cascading down my cheeks as I looked over this pool of Bethesda and I said, "Oh, Lord Jesus, how good of You to wait 30 years, almost as many years as that man laid on his straw mat, You waited this long to bring me to this place, a place where I imagined myself so many years ago, and I'm so grateful that You did not pass me by, because a 'no' answer to a request for healing has meant purged sin from my life, and it strengthened my commitment to you, Lord Jesus. It has forced me to depend on Your grace. It has bound me with other believers. It has produced discernment. It has disciplined my mind. It has taught me to spend my time wisely. It has given me a hope of heaven. Lord Jesus, You were so good in not healing me." And I know there are many people listening now who wish to be free of their circumstances - they are looking for an escape hatch, or maybe a quick fix for their affliction, and they think they might find it in a divorce or they are pondering maybe with the idea of suicide, such as one caller mentioned earlier. Or they're thinking that they'll find it in pills or medication, or a healing service. But the 32 years that I've been in this wheelchair and being at the Pool of Bethesda last year, has taught me that suffering is that good sheepdog, always snapping at my heals and driving me into the arms of the Shepherd. For that, I am so grateful. I am so grateful.