I was reading a section of Luther's Table talks today. The writer was describing how Luther would do visitation of the sick. After inquiring as to the health of the patient and how the treatment is going it says that Luther would ask several questions. One of the first questions was how has the patient borne himself while sick. Has he/she been patient towards God. Luther wanted to know if the sick person was bearing with his affliction patiently, because God had sent it out of fatherly goodness and because that by his sins he had deserved such illness and the patient should also be willing to die if it pleased God to take him--then Luther would praise this as a proper disposition and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Can we thank God for our illness and even more claim that God is good because He gave it to us and even more so that we deserve it. Luther is not advocating a position that says if you sin, God is going to punish you for that sin directly, ie he is just waiting to slap your wrist. What he seems to be saying is that in a sinful world and as a sinner, we should not be surprised when illness and affliction strike. All of creation groans after all and death only came because of sin, illness being one of the primary causes of death.
I have found that when we get sick, we turn to God more readily. When we can no longer manage on our own, then we see our need for God. Becoming dependent due to illness or defect can be a great blessing, because it forces us to rely on God. If we can move beyond the "Why me?" to the "What is your will?" we will find blessing in every affliction, illness and adversity.
Soli Deo Gloria
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