It’s Friday again. I’m not freeloading on my day off with this post. Well, not exactly. I pulled this piece from the file. The article below was written in August of 2008.

But the Lord prompted me to resurrect it in light of a phone conversation I had with a brother in ministry yesterday. As always I asked him about his wife. She has endured a particularly difficult history in terms of battling physical illness. I mean, really ugly stuff. Last year they finally got some relief for her with the use of a new drug on the market. When I asked him how that was going he informed me that she had since acquired yet another significant condition. I groaned inside. How much can this dear woman endure?

So, I dedicate this re-post to her and all the other men and women of God who keep fixing their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith, while they suffer with the frailties of their human bodies that can make their/our earthly pilgrimage at times seem so interminably long.

Perhaps you know of someone battling chronic illness. If led, would you kindly send them this link and tell them I wish them well?

Here is the article: 

One of the benefits of memorizing extended portions of Scripture comes when a verse you’ve read a million times before somehow stands out in a unique way during a process of diligent review. 

I experienced this one day while going over First Timothy 5 in my mind. Verse 23 jumped out at me. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments (emphasis added). It struck me. Timothy, a pastor and highly regarded servant of Christ (see Phil. 2:19-24), battled illness. A lot. He had stomach problems and he had not just occasional, but frequent ailments. So much so Paul had to prescribe a little sanctified wine drinking for his health. 

And he’s not alone in the record of the New Testament. Epaproditus was sick and nearly died while visiting Paul in prison (Phil. 2:27). Paul left Trophimus sick at Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20). Paul reminded the Galatians of his illness that somehow occasioned his preaching of the gospel among them (Gal. 4:13). Some think his thorn in the flesh in 2 Cor. 12:7 involved a physical malady like blindness. 

Texts like this are something of a mercy to me. This month I pass the three year mark since finishing treatment for head and neck cancer. The year of 2005 saw me get sick nearly to the point of death. But as with Epaphroditus, God had mercy on me and spared me. 

Through much of my adult life I have struggled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It has left me sick in bed for weeks at a time when it hit me with its worst. I lost my first church over the prolonged nature of the illness. 

Sometimes when you fight disease or sickness chronically you tend to wear down with fears of having too little faith and discouraging thoughts of somehow being out of sync with God. It is true that disobedience can bring sickness (see 1 Cor. 11:30). But the examples above give me comfort. Saints in the Bible were no strangers to sickness. And I haven’t even touched on the Old Testament examples. 

Take courage, ye saints of the weaker constitution. God has His purposes in your unique design. The best of God’s servants have battled illness. Remember at all times His grace is sufficient and His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).