Good Gifts

As parents, it breaks our hearts to watch our kids in pain. We hope they are always well and joyful, and we share in their suffering when they are not. As a parent, I will never forget how heartbreaking it was to watch my infant daughter, Jessica, suffer from a viral fever. To ease her suffering, I prayed over her and paced around her room all night.

What I feel for my sick children is nothing compared to the love our heavenly Father has for us, and that is what this experience has taught me. Since He is so devoted to our well-being, He desires nothing less for us. As a result of the harm they cause, illness and disease disgust him. The good news is that when Jesus was hanging on the cross, God bore our sicknesses in His flesh. In this way, we can avoid experiencing them.

According to the Scriptures, Jesus Himself took our weaknesses and suffered our diseases. Jesus went to such lengths for us because He is so devoted to our well-being that He couldn't rest until our salvation, health, and completeness were assured. After taking on the weight of the world's sin, sickness, and disease, He declared, "It is finished!" and went to sleep.

That God is good is the takeaway here. Being our kind heavenly Father, He desires that us be free from harm, have all that we need, and be shielded from any and all danger. It makes no sense to me that some Christians preach that God allows sickness as a means of imparting a lesson or that we must "pray hard" to receive His cure.

That a father on Earth would intentionally hurt his own child is unfathomable. Ignorant, of course not! If our heavenly Father were to act in such a way, why would we think that? If you are unwell, seeking healing is not sinful. It's rather the reverse, in fact. Seeking recovery is consistent with the will of our Father, if He wants us to be healthy and prosper.

My buddy, you must dismiss the idea that God intends for us to learn anything via our pain. No, that simply isn't so. Because He is good, God desires to bless us with only the finest of things. He hopes for our well-being and wholeness. Let's put our faith in Him to restore us to health. He cares about us more than we can possibly fathom, and He always has our best interests at heart.