Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christian Mythology 23. Health – Myth: God wants Christians to enjoy good health

I was twenty-six when I had my first heart attack. This was one of God’s many wakeup calls to me.

Jesus healed an infirm man at the pool of Bethesda. Later that Sabbath day, Jesus met the man again in the temple. Jesus said to him, “Behold, thou are made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

Jesus spoke a similar warning in Luke 11:26, “Then goeth he (an evil spirit), and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

That heart attack was my worse state with seven more wicked spirits. I did not heed that call and therefore had a second heart attack a year later.

Christians who do not heed Jesus’ warning to “sin no more” are fools. My sister died around the same time I had the second attack. She was a Christian who would not stop sinning. That was another wakeup call to me. No one was safe. God took her home because He would not allow any more dishonor to His Name. Sometimes he gets to that point. His lovingkindness and mercy never end. But He does have limits.

Dr. Adrian Rogers of Love Worth Finding said something like this about praying for the sick:

“Why should I pray for God to heal this person? They’ll just go back to serving Satan in sin.”

He also said this about our prayers in general regarding the health of saints, “We spend more time praying to keep saints out of heaven than we do to keep sinners out of hell.”

What a thing to say about a saint! Shocking. But true. We need to think about these things. Before we concern ourselves with good heath, great wealth, and overwhelming blessings from God, we need to turn to His point of view. Is there any sin in my life? Am I right with the Lord?

I bear more physical scars in my body because of sin. These are not the marks of the Lord Jesus that Paul spoke of. Oh that I had more of those instead. Mine are scars of shame. Praise God He has spared me, awakened me, and chosen me still as a vessel of honor.

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