Objection: We Should Be Grateful for Illness That Throws Us into the Arms of Jesus

This is a variant of the “David Said That It Was GOOD That He Was Afflicted… ” objection, but it comes from this slightly different angle:

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ILLNESS, MY BLESSED GUIDE INTO THE ARMS OF JESUS
by Noah Menz

I struggle constantly with my condition.  But far from being my enemy, I have found that my condition is my friend because it always drives me closer to Jesus.  My condition is so bad and so overwhelming, my only option is to run into the arms of my Savior for help.  But we should all trust Him for help at all times, so my condition is actually a blessing.  So I’ve decided that it’s all right if I’m never well again.  I know I wouldn’t cling to my Savior so closely if I didn’t have my condition.  I’m in the arms of Jesus because my condition drove me there!  I have stopped seeing my condition as a problem to be solved and have started being grateful for it, because if it weren’t for my condition, I would not have to run to Jesus so much and I would not walk as closely with Him.  I would never know as I do now what it is like to be held in His loving arms.  I bless my illness because it has made my walk with God so much better.

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Grateful?  So to whom are you going to express your appreciation?

To Satan?  Are you seriously going to have a talk with Satan and tell him, “Thank you for sending me my condition.  I am so grateful that you did your work of stealing my health and destroying my body to drive me into the arms of my Savior?”  Do you seriously think that Satan will EVER do anything to you that is intended to improve your walk with Jesus?

“Yes,” someone will say, “Satan MEANT it for evil, but it actually boomeranged on him, because it drove me closer to Jesus, so he actually helped me even though Satan had other plans!”  Still, are you going to thank the devil for his efforts to steal from, kill and destroy you?  Did anyone in the Bible ever thank the devil for making him sick?  If not, why should you be the first to do something so ridiculous?

Or will you thank God – for something He didn’t even do?  He isn’t the one who wants to destroy you, and He isn’t the one who brought you “your condition.”  (Of course, anyone reading this book should know better than to claim a condition by calling it “my condition” – that phrase, especially when repeated incessantly, is like nails on a chalkboard to someone who knows the Bible.)

“OK, you may say, “I know GOD didn’t put this on me, but He ALLOWED it in His loving providence, and for that I am grateful.”  God ALLOWS a lot of things that kill people, but that is not because He and Satan are now partners.  God ALLOWS people to be sick who don’t know what His Word says.  He ALLOWS people to be UNSAVED who don’t know what His Word says, too.  He ALLOWS wars and terrorist attacks.  He ALLOWS gay pride parades.  The fact that God ALLOWS something by no means indicates His approval or complicity in what is happening.

I “get” the fact that good fellowship with Jesus is desirable, and that whoever objects this way is grateful for having that fellowship.  I am grateful for His fellowship too, but He does not have to “allow” some horrible affliction for me to enjoy it.  If you go along with the argument in question, that “your condition” is your friend that brings you closer to Jesus, you will embrace “your condition” and never want to get rid of it.  That is tragic, because Jesus paid a painful price for you to be rid of it when it became “His condition” when He suffered it in your place for your sins.  Worse, you’ll encourage others not to receive His freely-offered healing.

While essays like the one above might seem very humble, they actually don’t reflect too well on the author.  Another way to word his argument would be, “I’m such a spiritual lug that the only way I will walk with the Lord the way I should is if a condition drives me there in desperation!  Even though I know how wonderful it is to fellowship with Jesus, I won’t do it unless I HAVE to because of my condition.”  If you already know how wonderful it is to walk with Him and you already realize how beneficial and peaceful it is, why do you still need “your condition” to drive you there if you have any spiritual sense at all?  Why not desire to be rid of it and keep your closer walk with the Lord?

This kind of thing is really a false comfort to others dealing with “their conditions.”  It tries to tell someone that “his condition” is really a blessing that brings him closer to Jesus, so why would he want to be healed of such a blessing-in-disguise?  (This book deals with the whole “blessing-in-disguise” lie in other places.  I don’t need to repeat those comments here.)

But let’s get real.  If the “condition” is such a blessing, are they doing anything to get relief from the problems arising from that condition?  Most likely, yes!  But it is logically inconsistent to seek any kind of relief for a condition that you think is beneficial to your spiritual walk.  If pain and overwhelming negative emotions are REALLY your friends, you would not do anything to relieve them such as taking medicine, seeing a doctor or going to a hospital.  If your problems are so beneficial, why not abandon all medicine and medical help so that you can be EVEN MORE miserable to be driven EVEN MORE QUICKLY into the arms of Jesus?

And once you’re in the arms of Jesus, why on earth do you need your condition to continue, as it no longer needs to throw you into the arms of Jesus?

If illness literally drove you into the arms of the REAL Jesus when He walked the earth, the anointing on Him would have driven out that illness!  Is He less anointed or less compassionate today?  If not, we should conclude that you can run to Jesus and GET RID OF your illness.