Soul-Searching in the Face of Sickness

Trinity Chapel is currently going through a season of sickness. Many of our households over the last 1+ month have been hit by illness, of varying degrees and type. It has kept over half of us home sick at any given time, and away from the Lord's day assembly of God's people. I know I have been thankful for the livestream option in the last weeks, but I imagine that those of you who have been using it would agree: we want to be back together! 

In times like these, we are reminded of our own weakness. We are reminded of our drastic limitations, which we are often able to ignore with the use of many modern technologies. But the reality is, we get sick, and no matter how hard we close our eyes, repeat the mantras, or take medications, healing still takes time. 

A mistake we often make with sicknesses is to approach them like naturalists. Christians profess to be supernaturalists, meaning we believe in the power of God to work in the world, but we often live like God didn't do it. We do this with natural disasters, droughts, world conflicts (all of which are under the power and control of God), and we especially do it with sickness. The biblical reality is that no plague, disease, or sickness, ever comes apart from the allowance of God. While God doesn't always allow these things as a direct consequence of sins (e.g. John 9:1-3), Scripture does teach that He might. Consider some of David's words from Psalm 39:

 "And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You. Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of the foolish. I was mute, I did not open my mouth, because it was You who did it. Remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand. When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; surely every man is vapor. Selah. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; do not be silent at my tears; for I am a stranger with You, a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength, before I go away and am no more." (Psalm 39:7-13)

As a result of his personal sins David knows that the Lord has rebuked, or corrected, him with sickness ("Your plague"). David cries out to the Lord to forgive his sins and remove the chastening plague from him before it takes away his life. Many times in Scripture, God is said to send sickness and disease as a punishment and/or a wake up call to repentance (e.g. Rev 9:20; Amos 4:10; Psalm 106:29-30). 

I'm not going to sit here and write that the Lord has explicitly told me that our church's current struggles with sickness are the direct result of any one particular sin on our part, but I do think it is easily in the wheelhouse to say we ought to treat this time as a call to repentance, to prayer, to personal examination of our hearts, and confession and forsaking of sin. 

May we have spirits like Phinehas, who intervened with holy violence and removed the transgression of God's people, that God's plague might be stopped. Let us search our hearts with the spirit of Psalm 139, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." May we cry out like David, on behalf of ourselves and our brethren in Christ: "Deliver us from all our transgressions. Remove Your plague from us. Hear our prayer, O LORD, and give ear to our cry." 

As we renew ourselves to seek the Lord and His righteousness, may we find Him a refuge in our time of need, and experience the blessings of Psalm 91:9-11,

"Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,

Even the Most High, your dwelling place,

No evil shall befall you,

Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;

For He shall give His angels charge over you,

To keep you in all your ways.