My power works best in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT
Allergies, autoimmune disease, and chronic pain have been my lifelong companions. And I tend to complain. As a professional patient and physician, I can tell you a good doctor is worth his or her weight in gold.
While working in a busy Family Practice clinic, I developed heel pain. Every step felt like walking on sharp rocks. I duly saw a podiatrist. The diagnosis? Plantar fasciitis with heel spurs. Even after steroid injections, it took months to resolve.
Years later the condition recurred, and I saw a new podiatrist. In the waiting room, I sensed an immediate effect on my attitude. All of the wall decorations had Scripture quotes. A warm, comforting color scheme along with soft Christian music playing overhead further calmed me. The doctor even warmed his hands before examining my icy feet.
When I laughed and made an off-hand complaint about all my chronic ailments, the doctor smiled and gently said, “You are as the Maker intended.”
Talk about a velvet-covered anvil dropping on my head. That was the most profound, eye-opening thing any physician ever said to me. And his timing was perfect, since my health issues worsened not long afterwards.
In 2 Corinthians 12:7 – 9, Paul said he was given “a thorn in the flesh. … Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness’” (NLT).
It’s a hard lesson to learn, yet earthbound suffering that weakens us is never in vain. Trials are part of God’s plan, and how we handle them become our witness to others. Eternity puts all of this in perspective.
God designed us for His reasons. Grumbling and bitterness about our problems will dim our Christian light. Facing difficulties with faith and prayer makes all the difference, though.
Many times when I’ve been ill, the enforced slowdown was God’s way to prepare me for something I didn’t see coming.
When Jesus healed a man who’d been blind from birth, the disciples asked Him why the man had been born that way. He replied, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3 NASB).
The man’s blindness turned out to be part of God’s plan. Our health issues are all part of God’s plan. We are all as the Maker intended.