Day 9

Affliction and Healing

from the reading plan


Mark 2:17, Mark 1:40-42, 2 Corinthians 12:5-10, Psalm 34:19, Psalm 147:3, Matthew 14:14, 1 Peter 2:24, 2 Corinthians 4:7-18


Not long ago, my doctor called to tell me to go to the emergency room. I had been battling a fever that wouldn’t break, and a blood test revealed a raging bacterial infection that was in the process of destroying my heart. I was dying.

Up until that moment, I had never been in the hospital for anything. I’d never broken a bone, or had my appendix out, or anything like that. I was the picture of health. But when I pulled up to the ER and gave my name at the nurse’s station, a team of medical professionals was waiting for me. They took me to a room and began a process of diagnosis and treatment that would soon require open-heart surgery followed by months of recovery.

I turned 40 during this season and, for the first time in my life, came face to face with my mortality. My body was destroying itself, and unless someone who knew my affliction and how to fix it intervened, I would have died. My heart valves would have failed and my lungs would have filled with blood, drowning me.

The onset of affliction brought me closer than I had ever come to the knowledge that we are all in the process of falling apart. We are the image-bearers of God living in bodies that are breaking down. We are given the glorious promise that every sorrow and sickness will one day end (Revelation 21:4), but that day has not yet come. What do we make of that?

The apostle Paul describes suffering in this life as “momentary light affliction” when compared to the “absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory” that is ours when our faith is in Christ (2 Corinthians 4:17). But this doesn’t mean the momentary nature of our suffering, or its comparative lightness, is of no consequence to God.

In Mark 1, we read about a leper who called out to Jesus, “If you are willing, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). Mark tells us that Jesus was “moved with compassion” (v.41). The Messiah felt something in response to the suffering man’s affliction. He didn’t wave the leper off or speak a little blessing. He was moved with compassion. “I am willing.” Jesus told him. “Be made clean” (v.41).

I love this about Jesus. God cares about our need for eternal healing (our greater need, by far), but He does not dismiss our present suffering in the process. Sometimes He heals us in the here and now. Sometimes He does not. And we cannot know why God does what He does in this regard. That information just isn’t given to us. But the fact that we’re promised that one day all our sufferings will cease tells us our afflictions matter to God right now.

Even when God does not remove our afflictions from us, His eternal plan has them in view. When I was afflicted and uncertain about what the future held, this truth was profoundly comforting. We are the object of God’s compassion. This means we are free to put our faith in the One who has promised to deliver us from a world where hospitals are necessary. I look forward to that.

Written by Russ Ramsey

Post Comments (9)

9 thoughts on "Affliction and Healing"

  1. Jonathan Martinez says:

    I will seek him in my trials, and go to him with my struggles and trust that he will bring about incredible healing and renewal of my heart and soul and body. I will also lead others to do the same and walk with them through their suffering to lay it down at the cross.

  2. Jonathan Martinez says:

    That he cares deeply for us. That he is there kneeling down when we are hurting and unclean like the leper.

  3. Jonathan Martinez says:

    That it is filled with stories of how much Jesus wants to be in a relationship with us. Over and over Jesus goes down to our level and talks with us and weeps with us and is moved with compassion for us. His immense love for us is incredible!

  4. Jonathan Martinez says:

    That we are broken and in desperate need of a savior not only of our souls but of our selves. We need someone in our daily lives who we can cling to and be healed by.

  5. Jonathan Martinez says:

    Father, please give my heart peace. Allow my soul to see your spirit and trust that you are faithful to finish this work you started in me. Bring healing from my current situation and allow this season of sadness to bring forth immense character growth and allow it to transform my heart into one that finds all hope and joy in you! I will trust in you Lord, and through these trials and hard days I will strive to see your beauty and power over all of this.

  6. Trevor Seales says:

    Before I ever loved Mom, God loved her. Before I ever knew Mom, God created her. Before I ever prayed for her healing, God knew her outcome. Before I ever shared in her life, God knew her every thought. Despite how much I love her, God has always loved her more. God’s perspective will always be fundamentally different than mine because He is eternal. Her life was a small part of His very big purpose although to me her life was overwhelmingly significant. I am learning to find reassurance in the fact that I don’t have to understand God’s plan for it to still be God’s plan. I’m learning to be content with the fact that before she was ever humanly sick, she was eternally healed and that alone can be good enough for me.

  7. Nathan says:

    God truly cares about all we go through. Without Him we are nothings and He wants to be so close to us! He wants all of us. He cares deeply and loves us to the greatest extent. No matter what His love cannot be overcome!

  8. Nathan says:

    We must face affliction in order to grow to our complete true selves God created is to be! Even if He doesn’t remove the suffering or affliction from us He still walks beside us and guides us!

  9. Nathan says:

    I will proclaim His love for me and allow Him to do anything with my life! I will know and believe in Him even in the darkest moments.

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