Fortitude amidst sickness: Healing

The gift of fortitude enables a person “to overcome difficulties or to endure pain and suffering with the strength and power infused by God.” Through fortitude, the Holy Spirit inspires and energizes a person to undertake great things joyfully and without fear despite obstacles. None of us wants to get sick or endure a physical ailment that brings great suffering. It is a basic part of being human to avoid whatever leads to pain.

However, in the light of faith, sickness, and physical suffering take on a new meaning. This positive side of suffering is not an easy pill to swallow, but it does help us stay calm in the midst of suffering. Instead of focusing on the negative, we recognize that God allowed this sickness for a reason.

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We may not know that reason immediately, but over time we may catch a glimpse of God’s divine plan. Without faith and fortitude, illness can be difficult to endure and our anxiety level only rises. The good news is that Jesus Christ is the “Divine Physician,” and desires not only the health of our body but most of all the health of our soul. With this in mind, we are able to accept the cross Jesus gives to us and ask God what he wants us to learn.

PRAYER

Almighty Father, Thank you for your love, grace, and mercy. I pray that my discomforts will turn to comforts, my pains to gains, my deprivation to more blessings, my losses to profits, my tears to smiles, my sorrows to pleasures, my illness to wellness, my debts to credits, and my dreams to realities. As the scripture says, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” And “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. I trust in you Lord and in you alone to heal me with any form of skepticism towards blessing that you will be employed upon me. I trust, Lord, that this agony and suffering that is only in my head, will come to an end and positivism will shine upon me as I read, hear, study, and preach the truth in the Bible. Amen.