I had the flu for several days. Slight fever, chills, headache, stuffiness. Typical of the flu. I asked the Lord for healing but I realized that my asking was not with a real belief or desire for healing, I knew this would pass.
Psalm 2:1,2 O LORD my God, in You I have taken refuge;
Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,
Or he will tear my soul like a lion,
Dragging me away, while there is none to deliver.
This was my psalm this evening.
Who are my enemies, Lord? Are they not Your enemies? Then why am I complacent about the flu? Isn’t sickness Your enemy? If I am not radical about your enemy, your enemy will be radical with me!
I stopped to ponder that for a moment. It is so easy to get complacent with asking for healing for ourselves when we are hit with symptom after symptom. Most symptoms are words of knowledge for others, but what happens when we are truly attacked in our own body? Complacency, even unbelief has crept up on me so subtly. I’d come to accept that I do get a cold sometimes, or the flu, or a nauseas stomach. I accept it. Because we just get these things.
But wait! What if we adopted that attitude for other things that the Lord does not want us to walk in?
Well, we just get anxiety sometimes. It’s normal, right?
Well, when it rains it pours.
Well, we all get a little depressed, it’s human nature.
Well, I don’t have time to think about my longings and desires, there are bills to be paid.
I realized that if I allowed my heart to get hardened just because it’s natural or normal to be any way contradictory to the absolute perfection of the Kingdom of God, then I begin to slip into unbelief, where, according to Hebrews 4, there is no rest. Only those who believe God’s word have rest.
No Rest??!! You mean, anxiety all the time?
Ps 37: 7, 8 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
Anxiety leads to evil doing! Unbelief leads to anxiety!
Therefore, belief leads to rest.
If I ask for healing of my body in order for myself to be comforted ONLY, then there comes a time when I will be able to tolerate a little sickness every now and then.
But if I command healing in my body because there is no sickness in the Kingdom of God, then all sickness is not tolerable. EVER! Christ died that I would be free from illness. Sickness is NEVER tolerable. (Though I do not judge myself or others unrighteously when sickness comes. We are ALL walking this thing out).
If I ask for the desires of my heart because I want for myself, then there will come a time when I no longer will ask God for big things, and then lose belief that He is more than able to provide.
But
If I ask for the desires of my heart because His word says “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart” (psalm 37:4) then at no time, EVER will I be afraid to ask or trust Him for whatever desire He puts in my heart.
Sickness and Poverty are enemies of the Lord.
They should be ours as well. ALWAYS.
