Articles
Coping with Life 2: Sickness 1
Coping with Life 2: Sickness 1
By Mike Willis
The judgment against Adam and Eve’s sin involved death: “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19b). Since the fall of man into sin, sickness and death have been a part of the cycle of human life. We should not be surprised that Satan would use man’s suffering through illnesses and terminal illnesses to persuade mankind to denounce God.
What has unbelief got to offer a person when he is experiencing the pain and suffering of sickness? If one renounces God, does that cure his liver cancer? If one becomes an atheist does his pain diminish? Becoming an unbeliever offers no benefit to anyone who is experiencing suffering.
The Bible records an incident in which Jesus’s disciples saw a blind man and asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus said it was neither (John 9:2-3). We should not trouble ourselves trying to explain every human illness as a result of sinful behavior. King Solomon, the wise king of Israel, wrote, “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all” (Eccl. 9:11).
David wrote, “The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health” (Psa. 41:3). The Lord sustains people who are sick and gives many people full recovery. Think of all the illnesses we have recovered from in our lifetime before our day of death arrives. We should be thankful to the God who sustains us.
