Monday, September 12, 2016

Power to Overcome Illness

The Sovereignty of God
The Sovereignty of God


Foundations of the Earth

Isaiah 38:9-20  The Message

9-15 This is what Hezekiah king of Judah wrote after he’d been sick and then recovered from his sickness:
In the very prime of life
    I have to leave.
Whatever time I have left
    is spent in death’s waiting room.
No more glimpses of God
    in the land of the living,
No more meetings with my neighbors,
    no more rubbing shoulders with friends.
This body I inhabit is taken down
    and packed away like a camper’s tent.
Like a weaver, I’ve rolled up the carpet of my life
    as God cuts me free of the loom
And at day’s end sweeps up the scraps and pieces.
    I cry for help until morning.
Like a lion, God pummels and pounds me,
    relentlessly finishing me off.
I squawk like a doomed hen,
    moan like a dove.
My eyes ache from looking up for help:
    “Master, I’m in trouble! Get me out of this!”
But what’s the use? God himself gave me the word.
    He’s done it to me.
I can’t sleep—
    I’m that upset, that troubled.
16-19 O Master, these are the conditions in which people live,
    and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive—
    fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life!
It seems it was good for me
    to go through all those troubles.
Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline.
    You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing.
But my sins you let go of,
    threw them over your shoulder—good riddance!
The dead don’t thank you,
    and choirs don’t sing praises from the morgue.
Those buried six feet under
    don’t witness to your faithful ways.
It’s the living—live men, live women—who thank you,
    just as I’m doing right now.
Parents give their children
    full reports on your faithful ways.
20 God saves and will save me.
    As fiddles and mandolins strike up the tunes,
We’ll sing, oh we’ll sing, sing,
    for the rest of our lives in the Sanctuary of God.


For Reflection
How often have you thought it, said it or even prayed it, "Master, I'm in trouble!  Get me out of this!"

The bad news is that you are hurting.   Because you turned to God, you know and God knows that, though a weak flame it may be, God's Spirit is still alive in you.  A dimly lit bulb, dirty from the stuff of life, barely able to provide a glimmer of hope, the Holy Spirit is still abiding in you.

These are the conditions of our human existence.  We know suffering.  When we suffer the most we are blessed by a suffering God.  Recovery is assured by a Christ-centered infusion of life.  Our suffering is re-framed in forgiveness and we sing with joy.

Pray
prayers of thanksgiving for God who never abandons you.  Confess the saving power of God's grace and sing in the Sanctuary of God.

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