I met a recently diagnosed patient this weekend and shared some of my journey with her. She was relieved that someone 'understood.' As I shared with her I 're-lived' some of the experiences I have had over the years. I can remember the confusion and fear that I had when I first got the diagnosis. As I slowly told people about the diagnosis, I was chastised for not having enough faith, being told that there was nothing really wrong - that it was all in my head, and that I was being punished for the bad deeds I had done. Needless to say, I became more discriminating about who I would share this information with. And yes, I questioned God. It was difficult to grasp why a loving and merciful God would allow me to suffer with this disease.
Many of us are all familiar with the text, 'by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5) So if we really are healed, then why are we still sick?
The Apostle Paul understood this situation. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Paul spoke about his 'thorn in his flesh.' It was his chronic health condition that caused him distress and even sometimes made doing his ministry difficult. We really don't know what that condition was. It has been speculated to be malaria, or an eye condition, or even headaches. What ever it was, it was a torment to him and he had begged, three times, for the Lord to take it away from him. But instead of relief the Lord told him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul was assured that it was in his weakness that the Lord's strength was ever present. Because no matter what he was going through, the Lord was right there with him giving him the grace and the strength to go forward.
Yes, we are healed. We are healed in our mind and spirit. We are healed in our hearts and souls. And we are even healed in our body in the perfect will of God. But the cure we desire may not yet be manifested. No matter what we feel in the natural, we are still called to go forward. Like Paul the thorn may still be present but we have to hold on to the fact that when we are at our weakest, the Lord is in His strength. And it is His strength that gets us through the rough times.
When the cure doesn't come we need to humble ourselves and submit to the will of God, remember God's power in our weakness, and praise God in whatever circumstance we are in. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 states in part, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ... For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Go forward in the grace and strength of Christ's power knowing that when we are at our weakest, He is at His strongest.