Friday 25 May 2018

Jesus Christ - The Health Of Our Countenance!

Jeremiah 8: 22 “Is there no medicine in Gilead? Is there no physician? Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people?

I found out recently that a number of people there are who believe that once saved, nothing bad should come their way. It is their firm belief that God keeps everything bad from believers so that their lives should be some form of a dream in which everything goes the way it ought to. For such people, if anything goes in a direction they think it shouldn’t or out of the script they wrote for themselves (God’s will notwithstanding), it would mean that something bad which is capable of negatively impacting them forever has happened. Such people are hit very hard when faced with challenges. They struggle with processing difficult moments because they don’t even know how to turn it over to God since they made up their minds that bad things should not be happening to them “in Christ”. They become bitter and disappointed in or frustrated at God and refuse to accept that they need to adjust their expectations making it better aligned with the word of God. This is a real problem amongst us and some of the reasons the number of depressed believers is increasing. If we don’t deal with this now, we will shortly start having problems of great proportions which we don’t need.

Psalm 43: 5 “Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again-my Savior and my God.”

I understand that there are some things we don’t like to talk about and even more so in Africa where I reside. Some believers will not even mention a challenging physical health problem because they are convinced that to be sick suggests their relationship with God is not as it should be and they would hate for people to even think so because everyone wants to be seen as having the best relationship with God, reality not withstanding. With mental health, it is even worse. Whilst it is true that we ought not to suffer from these things especially mental health challenges, we do and God knew that we would so He already made provision for our healing as well as tell us how we can prevent it from happening: and all of this is hidden in His word. If heaven has not judged anyone disgusting for any illness, then there is no reason to be ashamed or embarrassed by a health situation; even more so when it is a resolvable one. These things would definitely be easier to deal with if we allow ourselves to be to one another, what and who we ought to be.  Life is full of highs and lows so we somehow need one another from time to time and to varying extents. God made it so for reasons He understand perfectly. If it was not best for us, I am certain He would have found a way to fix it.

Jeremiah 8: 8 – 9 “How can you say, we are wise because we have the word of the Lord. When your teachers have twisted it by writing lies? These wise teachers will fall into the trap pf their own foolishness, for they rejected the word of the Lord.”

Jeremiah 8: 10b – 12a “… yes even my prophets and priests are like that. They are all frauds. They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of these disgusting actions? Not at all-they don’t even know how to blush!”

Interestingly, the one place we have difficulties turning to for help in challenging times is the very place we don’t turn to - The Word of God. This is truth that most of us know yet we won’t turn look in God’s word because it seems too ordinary to deal with such huge problems. Also, it won’t talk to us like as a man would so we don’t see God revealed in it and consequently, do not see the power in it too. We would rather turn to men because it feels easier and more often than not, we are looking to the men to do something which God only can do. Meanwhile, these men dare not point us to God because we will consider them failures without “power or anointing” so a number of them would step into God’s place and try to do what they certainly cannot do so that the end is futility whilst more and more believers lose their minds. We must accept our reality which is that we have a God who though is not physically identifiable yet His existence is confirm by the nature and all that He made including man. I know that it is tough for us to trust one whom we don’t even see but it is what we have to do. To be a Christ follower, we must believe that “He is” and that we must do, even in the face of all that the world throws at us. We must tell ourselves the truth about our very selfish expectations. It is time to manage them differently.

Jeremiah 46: 11 – 12 “Go up to Gilead to get medicine, O virgin daughter of Egypt! But your many treatments will bring you no healing.”

Jeremiah 30: 17 “I will give you back your health and heal your wounds, says The Lord.”

It is indeed a wonderful thing to have a God like ours at a time like this - an ever present God. Christ presence in any life is a privilege with great benefits; but only those who access these benefits will enjoy them. To do that, we have to give ourselves to studying the word and with open minds because The Word we read is not enough, it is the word we let into our lives that makes a difference.  In these perilous times, there is nothing we need more than God’s word; for therein is our strength. Every Word we understand or is revealed to us, is accompanied with power to do what the word says because He who reveals The Word, will always make available, the power to do the word. The darker the world gets, the more we need Jesus Christ the Son of God (The Word of God) who will guide our decision making so that we are able to make decisions that further facilitate the enforcing of our victory.  We cannot afford to let life determine our stability; our God alone will be allowed to do that.

Jeremiah 29: 11 “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

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