Objection: We Should Praise God When in Physical Agony

This is a half-truth the way the popular author presented it.  It is ALWAYS appropriate to praise God, and that would include times when you are in physical agony.  However, it is completely contrary to God’s known will to resign yourself to what God calls a curse, assuming that His will for you is to continue to praise Him while you continue to hurt.

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PRAISE GOD WHEN YOU’RE IN PHYSICAL AGONY
by Max Payne

I suffer from a chronic disease, but I have learned the secret of praising God despite my horrible ongoing symptoms.  I was blessed to be born into a family of others with serious and painful conditions, so from a young age I was able to learn this blessed lifestyle from them as I watched them continue to praise God while their bodies were racked with pain.  This is the epitome of devoted Christianity, but so few manage to obtain it.  Most people just complain about their conditions to everyone, including God.  I hope that by reading this, you can realize, as I have, that a hallmark of maturity is praising God no matter what He permits to happen to you in His loving providence.

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If you are at a popular retailer looking for good Christian literature, I would recommend that you skip silly books like this and instead buy and believe an even more popular book – the BIBLE.  The first thing that stands out with this objection is that the author at no point quotes any Scripture to back up the idea that you should resign yourself to sickness and praise God through the pain.  The reason for that should be obvious – no Scripture backs it up!

This argument flunks The SAME Test in spades.  Jesus and His will are the same now as they were in the Bible.  At no point do we read anything remotely like the following:

Luke 25:13-15:
And Jesus encountered ten lepers who were in great pain from their disease, and saith unto them, “Complain not, but rather praise God while ye do hurt.”
And at once the crowds ceased touching Jesus’ clothes to be healed by the power which did flow out of Him, and instead simply praised God, making no effort to be healed of their plagues.
And Jesus turned to them and said, “Blessed are ye of my Father, for ye did choose the higher path for My true disciples.”

Given that Jesus never told anyone that it was His will for him to keep his disease and praise God through the pain, you can be sure He will never do so today.  Otherwise, He would not be “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Now if you have a kidney stone and you’re in terrible pain, it IS appropriate to praise God.  You can praise Him because He loves you so much that He sent Jesus to be in physical agony to redeem you from “the curse of the Law” that included physical agony as the punishment for sin.  That is different from thinking that He did nothing that would help your condition and that you have to just “praise the Lord anyway.”

Praising God while sick IS an improvement over NOT praising God while sick, but it is even more of an improvement to receive the healing Jesus paid for and then praise God while NOT sick.