S – Sickness and God {26 Surprising Ways to Encounter God, A-Z}

“Pain is never permanent.”
– Teresa of Avila

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S—Sickness

I hate being sick. Who wants pain? No one.

Yet in our pain, we often seek God. We know he can provide comfort and healing.

When relief comes, hopefully we thank him and are grateful.

But when cures don’t come? When God doesn’t provide relief in a way we can feel?

Although hard to do, at least our emotional suffering can lessen if we’ll again respond with thankfulness for grace to live through the pain.

Because even with no tangible results in sight, we can know this:

The process for healing has begun.

God has set healing in motion. It will eventually be complete. We just have to wait it out.

Try This

There are two approaches we can take as we deal with pain, even as we make efforts to alleviate it. Each has merits in the right circumstances.

  1. Stay with the pain.
    Allow your mind to focus on the spots where you hurt. Welcome God into those areas to sit with you. Seek acceptance for the situation as it is in the moment (even as you continue to ask for mercy and healing).
  2. Distract yourself from the pain.
    When possible, also refocus on other areas of life that bring you joy. Ask God to intentionally divert your attention to things you can do or people you can pray for or just simple pleasures you can enjoy by sitting with him.

Learn More

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Are you sick? How do you handle the pain? Please share in the comments.

Coming up tomorrow:

  • Week in Review

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6 thoughts on “S – Sickness and God {26 Surprising Ways to Encounter God, A-Z}

  1. floyd

    Pain is part of this life. If a person lives long enough they’re gonna have some pain.

    Despite whatever pain there is, I move. And I’m thankful to be able to, not everyone gets to. I guess it’s about being thankful for whatever amount of grace we get.

    Excellent thoughts.

    1. LisaNotes Post author

      I’m with you, Floyd. Thankfully by the grace of God, my pains haven’t been the debilitating kind. My heart really goes out to people who can’t move with their pain (or even without the pain). 🙁 And agree: if we live long enough, pains WILL come, unfortunately. We’re blessed that grace will also come….

  2. Katie

    Depends on the pain… my chronic back issues born with…. sometimes better with moving and other times not. Ice and heat. Better than pain medicine. Grateful that I can still move and feel pain. Pain lets me know when I need to take it easy.

    My husband’s sickness is different. I don’t know what to do to help him. He doesn’t either. Prayer.

    1. LisaNotes Post author

      Your words remind me of the book, “Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants.” Paul Brand talks about the same thing, that pain is a reminder to us that something is off and we need to pay attention. Granted, I’d still rather NOT have anything even be wrong in the first place. ha. But pain does serve its purpose. I’m so sorry that Matt’s sickness is still so difficult. Praying for you both, Katie….

  3. June

    A complex subject, Lisa. Since there are different kinds/types of pain. What’s helped me the most with chronic illness is rather than praying for healing I pray for His will. Knowing that whatever it may be: healing, delayed healing, no healing, etc. it’s for my good and His glory. Easy words to type, hard place to stay. I give it to Him daily 🙂

    1. LisaNotes Post author

      Excellent way to pray, June. I appreciate you sharing that here. I agree: it helps to lift all the expectations from what we think God *should* do and just let him handle it as he sees best for our good and his glory. And yes, easy to say, hard to do…. I still fight against it over and over, and only rest it in periodically.

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