“And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” (Mark 4:40)
“And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” (Matt. 8:26)
It is no wonder that one of our adversaries greatest tools is fear, it is our first instinct, if you will, proven by Genesis 3:10, “And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Most people do not fear death, they fear what comes after this life, and so the fear of it becomes all consuming the closer they draw to it. And I do not speak of just the wicked here, but of many who profess Christ as Lord, those that sit in the pews with smiles on their faces, singing songs of glory to come, and then weeping, moaning and fearing when the doctor says the word “terminal.”
Many of these same individuals proclaim that if they had been in the boat with the Lord that night the sea raged, they would not have feared, forgetting that those with Him had been witness to much already, while forgetting at the same time the Holy Spirit of God Himself is within them. They will offer what they call reasonable explanations for their trepidations, for what they know are unwarranted fears, and the man of God will hear only excuses, the same as the Lord Himself did when He said “Where is your faith?”
The convenience of a life without pain, without trouble, without trials and tribulations, without ever having to walk through the valley of the shadow of death is not only what they want, but what they expect, and so a simple hangnail or minor scratch to them is seen as perhaps not a horrific event, but one that challenges their faith in His provision and protection. The most minor inconvenience is seen as a great trial.
This is quite evident if you have ever sat in a church where, when the formal routine reaches that point in the Sunday gathering, the prayer requests are read. If we keep in mind here what the Lord said to the disciples after they woke Him up and He calmed the sea, then each of those requests could be seen every Sunday morning as nothing more than a bad hair day. Now, that may seem rude to some of you, for the pain is real, the relief though is what the topic is, and if you cannot understand the meaning behind Romans 5:3, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;” then you go right ahead and put those requests in the bulletin next Sunday.
The minor inconvenience in the minds of most though to them is an event of great proportions, and so, in love and with firm intent, we ask the Lord to heal them physically, but the greater prayer request to the Lord for them on their behalf would be for them to come to the knowledge that all things happen for good, which does not mean for your good, but for the glory of God, and that person who wants nothing more than to be healed of their physical infirmity is not asking so for the glory of God, but for selfish reasons.
I know, many of you reading this will completely disagree with these statements, you want to believe that to serve Christ you must be as physically able to do so as possible, some of you want to blame Satan, but nearly every one of you that is being obedient to the will and Word of God understands this truth, if He wants you in pain, in pain is where you will be.
I will leave you with this to contemplate, instead of the friends of Lazarus laying him at the rich man’s gate every morning, knowing the dogs were going to come and lick his sores again, why didn’t they hold a prayer meeting asking the Lord to heal him? Why didn’t they take up an offering and send him to the best physician in the land? Do you suppose it was because he said the words to them that Job said to his wife? “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)
I will offer you one last point to contemplate, perhaps the first place the Lord teaches us to become a part of the fellowship of His suffering is in the flesh.
