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More Than Anything

3/23/2017

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

Can you believe it? We’re finally on the last segment of our mini-series on healing and deciphering what God’s Word actually says about it. Over the course of the past month, I’ve had some interesting and often intense discussions with many of you about this topic, and I want you to know, I applaud your tenacity in doing this study. By no means, is this an easy topic. I’m proud of you for seeking God through this issue! So, once more, let’s step into the last part of our study and see what God has to say about healing and death.

I think, more than any other subject, death is probably one of our greatest struggles in believing God. Honestly, I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve approached me disheartened, ready to quit on God because they prayed for a loved one to be healed and God allowed the person to die. They quote verses like Psalm 103:2-3, which says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,” and then they feel God lied by allowing their family member/friend to die. We discussed this two weeks ago, but let’s stop here for a moment so there’s no confusion. Verses like these are a wonderful promise from God, but if you actually study the original language, it’s written in future tense, meaning God will heal your diseases in Heaven. We all will be completely healed when we reach Heaven, so when you pray for God to heal your loved one and the person dies, God did in fact answer your prayer. The problem is, He didn’t answer your prayer the way you wanted. Again, let me be clear, you should pray and ask God to heal you in this lifetime, and He does sometime answer that prayer; however, you need to be ready to accept whatever His answer may be.

This is where it gets tricky. People are temporal, meaning even though we know about Heaven, we can’t fully grasp the concept that there’s more to life beyond the here and now. We see what’s in front of us; we feel the pain and hurt of now, and we fail to truly understand we have an amazing future promised to us in Heaven if we have a personal relationship with Christ. Even worse, whenever we encounter problems, we get desperate. We can become so focused on resolving our problems that we miss what God is doing in our lives.

I never truly understood this until I met Sharon. Even though I only met Sharon once, she changed my life more than anyone I’ve ever met. After speaking at a small church, a friend of Sharon’s asked me to go visit her because she only had a few months left to live. She was dying because of ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. For those who don’t know, there are two common ways to die from ALS – either your diaphragm is paralyzed and unable to make your lungs work so that you literally suffocate, or you choke on food, drink, or your own saliva because you lose the ability to swallow, and you asphyxiate. It’s an incredibly painful, agonizing illness which slowly kills you, which is why I was so surprised to meet one of the happiest people I’ve ever met. I went to Sharon’s home and spent several hours with her talking and laughing. When I asked her how she was so joyful, Sharon’s response changed my life. She told me that for the longest time she was too focused on her illness and her healing, or lack thereof. As months passed, God challenged her to not be so focused on her death that she forgot to live. So, she began to daily ask God to help her see Him throughout the course of the day, and He answered her prayer. She saw Him in her granddaughter’s laughter, in her husband’s tender care, in the sound of the ocean crashing on the shore, and in the kindness of a stranger who was willing to hug her when most people were scared to touch her.

That moment challenged me and changed me. You see, two weeks after I turned eighteen, I was told I had one of the most severe forms of lupus and would live a maximum of ten years. When I met Sharon, I was eight years into what I called my prison sentence. It was in that moment I realized I was more focused on my healing than I was on the Healer.

Don’t we all do that? We find ourselves in the midst of a major trial and we so desperately want the problem to go away, we become more focused on the solution than we do on the Problem Solver. Even worse, when God does step in, we often thank Him once and then move on in celebrating the fact our problem has gone away. As I’ve studied Jehovah-Rapha, “The Lord is my healer,” I can’t help but feel we’ve all done God a huge injustice. We get angry if He doesn’t answer our prayer the way we want, we pout like a two-year-old, and then turn our backs on Him. We say He’s not trustworthy, even though He’s daily walking with us through our trials, bringing good into a bad situation.

I took Sharon’s words to heart, and began to ask God on a regular basis to help me see Him in each day. His answer blew me away! When I stopped focusing on the negative, I saw God do things I never thought possible. The amazing thing is I just celebrated my thirty-third birthday. I’m five years past my expiration date. I’m still sick, but by the grace of God, I’m still here. Yet, I’ve realized over the years, my healing isn’t nearly as important as I once thought it was. More than anything, I want to see God in each day.

What about you? What is your focus? Do you see God in each day? Are you focused on the healing or the Healer? Are you so focused on the possibility of dying that you’ve forgotten to live? What do you want more than anything?

“Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” ~ James 1:12

© March 23, 2017

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Why me?

3/16/2017

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By Erin Elizabeth Austin

I’ve been very honest with you all about my thoughts, opinions, questions, and doubts I’ve dealt with over the years in regards to God and sickness, and I admit, there’s been a lot. After I was diagnosed with my third chronic illness and forced to quit work, I spent over a year studying Scripture trying to figure out what God was doing in my suffering. Once I finally realized that my definition of healing and my understanding of Scripture was wrong, I still couldn’t help but feel dejected, as I imagine many of you were after reading last week’s devotion. As wonderful as it is that God cares about our heart, mind, and soul, that doesn’t take away the frustration of living with a chronic illness. I admit after finally coming to terms with what God has to say about healing and sickness, I still couldn’t help but ask the ever-present question since I was diagnosed with lupus, “Why me?”

I know from talking with many of you that I’m not the only one to ask this question. To be honest, I think it’s normal when a crisis happens in our lives to wonder why we have to go through difficulties. Whether it’s a chronic illness, a broken family, or financial difficulties, the temptation to throw our hands up in aggravation and shout “why me” is at the forefront of our thoughts. Personally, I asked God this question countless times over the course of several months. After months of fighting with myself and God, I heard a gentle whisper in my soul late one night saying, “Why not you?”

It’s a difficult question, but it made me stop and think. And once again, I found myself learning some uncomfortable truths from God’s Word. We want God to take away all our problems and fix everything, but we also want freewill to do whatever we desire. We want the best of both worlds, and we can’t have it. God loves us so much, when He created the earth He chose to give us freewill, meaning we can choose to murder someone or we can choose to worship God. We can choose to be kind and considerate, or we can choose to be rude and say whatever we want without thinking about how our actions affect others. God made us different when He gave us freewill. Unlike animals who have certain parameters and rules they must live by, people aren’t confined in such a way. A bear must hunt in order to eat, and he will because it’s been predetermined that’s what a bear will do. Unlike a Disney movie, a bear won’t suddenly decide he wants to be a vegan and eat salad for the rest of his life, because it isn’t in his nature. However, we have been gifted with a life of freewill. We can choose to do whatever we want in this life and unfortunately, we chose sin, which made this world broken. When Adam and Eve chose to willingly turn their backs against what God said, our world became broken, meaning our world was no longer perfect. Brokenness comes in all forms, and chronic illness is simply one of them.

Somewhere along the way, we got the idea that having a relationship with Jesus meant we didn’t have to suffer. Yet because we live in a broken world, we aren’t exempt. The only way for us to no longer endure brokenness is to no longer live on this earth, meaning we’re dead and in Heaven. So, where’s the hope if we’re going to be exposed to sickness?

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that one of my favorite passages of Scripture is found in Daniel 3, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were thrown into a fiery furnace for not denouncing their faith. The reason I love this passage is twofold. First and foremost, we see in verses 24-25 they weren’t alone in their suffering. Jesus joined them in the fire. Therein lies the great promise to those who have a relationship with Christ. Yes, we will endure suffering and hardship in this life just like everyone else, but we don’t walk through our trials alone. We have been promised that God will never leave us or forsake us (Deut. 31:6). Because of Jesus willingly choosing to die on the cross so that we might have a relationship with Him, we are offered comfort only God can give to His children who are going through hard times. He may not take away the suffering, but He does ease the burden. Even better, God will use our trials and turn them into something good. One of my favorite verses in all of the Bible is found in Daniel 3:27 when it says, “The satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king’s high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them.”

Have you ever been around a campfire? As fun as they are, the smell is awful once you step away from the fire. The smell of smoke permeates everything on your body. That’s what normally happens when a person endures a personal trial. It negatively impacts him or her. Yet when we have a relationship with God, if we keep our focus on Him, it doesn’t matter how severe the trial or how big the fire. We will come through and we won’t smell like smoke.

Talk about a testimony! Have you ever been around someone who radiates joy despite all they’ve had to endure? Compared to someone who is negative and bitter, the difference is astounding. People are drawn to those who have hope and joy even though their lives are challenging, and because God made it possible for us to have a relationship with Him, we get to be those people who point others to God no matter what. I want that more than anything else! Yes, I have three chronic illnesses, but it doesn’t have to destroy me because my God is bigger than any fiery furnace this life throws at me.

God is walking with us through the fire! Do you see Him? Are you looking? More importantly, do you smell like smoke?

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.” ~ 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

© March 16, 2017

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What if...?

3/9/2017

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By Erin Elizabeth Austin

You came back! I have to admit, I wasn’t sure how last week’s devotion would be received. To my surprise, the response was HUGE! Apparently, many of us struggle to believe God because we question why He doesn’t always heal. This topic is so complex we are going to discuss it for another two weeks, because we need to understand what the Bible says about sickness, healing, and God’s role in it. Please come back next week; today’s devotion only covers part of what God has to say about healing and sickness. If you have questions after reading today’s devotion, chances are we’ll cover it in the next two weeks. For those who haven’t read last week’s devotion, I urge you to take a moment to read it (http://www.erinelizabethaustin.com/blog/when-sickness-prevails). Otherwise, this devotion will not make sense. So, are you ready to dive in?

We’ve all prayed for healing, yet few of us have gotten the answer we were hoping for. So, let me ask you a question. When you pray to be healed, what exactly are you wanting? I can hear many of you thinking “Duh!” all the way over here. I know it’s a straightforward answer, but it needs to be said. Yes, we’re praying that we will no longer be sick, but let’s take it a step further. Why are we praying this? Because being sick is hard and uncomfortable, and we want God to take away our discomfort. When we pray for healing, we are praying to be physically comfortable. Yet what if God sees something as more important than our discomfort?

I have spent years studying God’s Word. More specifically, I have studied all the references throughout Scripture about healing, and I was shocked at what I learned. The word for heal, which we see throughout the Old Testament, is rapha, and it does not in any way reference physical healing. It’s talking about the healing of our souls. If you study Hebrew, rapha actually means several things in regards to healing. The actual definition is to “to heal, become fresh, completely healed, repaired,” and my personal favorite, “purified.” When you know this, you can see how far we’ve taken Scripture out of context. In fact, one of the most misquoted verses in the entirety of the Bible is on healing. Isaiah 53:5 says, “But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our sins; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed.” So many people pray this verse out of context! They “claim” God’s promise to heal them from their diseases, when in fact, God’s not promised that at all. In this verse, the word healed means “to be completely healed,” and the language in the passage indicates it’s talking about being forgiven. As wonderful of a thought it is that God would heal us from our chronic illnesses, to me, the verse is so much more beautiful when you truly understand what it’s saying. It’s saying “God loves you so much, He sent His Son to be beaten, whipped, and hung on a cross to forgive you of your sins. He wants your soul to be healed.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I find that mind-boggling. For years, I was angry because I thought God wasn’t fulfilling His promises to heal me. I thought being sick meant God didn’t love me. And I was mistaken! Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s okay to ask God to heal us, and we should. However, we need to be prepared for whatever His answer may be. God does heal people, but it’s not His first priority. Even Jesus, who often healed people, didn’t focus on the healing. His priority was always on a person’s soul, and although it’s not a popular thought, the number of people He didn’t heal is far greater than the number of those He did. In John 5:1-17, when Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, he only healed one person, when it clearly says in verse 3 that there “lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered.”

Now, this doesn’t mean that God causes you to be sick. Sickness and health problems are a part of living in a broken, sin-filled world, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t Jehovah-Rapha, “The Lord who heals.” If you get sick and God doesn’t answer your prayer for healing, then God has a purpose in your sickness. God not only cares about our physical health, but He cares about our emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Sometimes, in order for us to be healed in other areas of our lives, we have to be physically uncomfortable. I can honestly say that after being sick for over fifteen years, I’m a completely different person. God has healed areas in my life that I didn’t even realize were broken. Even though being sick is hard, I can honestly look back at all I’ve been through and be thankful because God has changed my life in ways I never imagined. He's used me, not in spite of my chronic illness, but because of it. There’s an old song by the Gaither’s called “He Touched Me.” I love the chorus when it says, “He touched me. Oh, He touched me. And oh, the joy that floods my soul. Something happened, and now I know. He touched me, and made me whole.”[i] God’s priority is for us to be whole. He is working in each of our lives, but it may look different than what we imagined. Some of the greatest stories in life are about transformation. God is in the process of transforming each of us to bring about a complete healing, from the inside out.

As you think on this over the coming days, I want to challenge you to ask yourself some questions. What if you’ve been asking the wrong questions? What if God is answering your prayer for healing? What if you’re so focused on not getting healed physically, you miss what God is doing in other areas of your life? What if your anger in God has been misplaced? What if God loves you so much He’s willing to allow you to remain sick in order for you to become spiritually, mentally, and emotionally whole? What if because of your illness, God is in the process of transforming you into someone absolutely amazing?

What if…?

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ Romans 8:38-39

© March 8, 2017

[1] http://www.lyrics.com/lyric/17363580

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When Sickness Prevails...

3/2/2017

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By Erin Elizabeth Austin

I have a confession to make. Before I started our Believing God series, I printed out a list of all the different names of God used throughout the Bible. As I was reading the list, I came across a name I immediately decided I didn’t want to write about. The reason for this is because, to be perfectly honest, it’s a touchy subject for most Christians. There are many different viewpoints on this particular topic, and quite honestly, I didn’t want to touch this subject with a ten-foot pole. Yet God won’t let me move past this subject. So, let’s all take a deep breath and step into God’s Word to see what He has to say about this.

Have you guessed what the topic is yet? If your answer is healing, give yourself a gold star! The name of God for the week is Jehovah-Rapha, which means “The Lord who heals.” Deep subject, I know. I can hear many of you yelling, “If God heals, then why am I sick?” Like I said, this is going to be tough devotion to read, but we need to address this area because it’s one of the main reasons why people struggle to truly believe God. In fact, this is such a complex, multifaceted subject, it’s going to take us several weeks to address everything God has to say about healing. So hang with me in the next several weeks, because we’re going to take an honest, in-depth look at healing and believing God when sickness prevails.

Personally, I’ve lost count of how many times someone has told me that if I believed God would heal me, then He would. Yet I’ve prayed, been anointed with oil, and believed with all my heart I would be healed and the sickness remained. And I was left wondering if I didn’t have enough faith or if God was simply a liar.

I have studied this subject more than any other subject in the Bible. It’s taken years of study and prayer, but I’ve learned a couple of things, as a result. The first thing we need to stop and realize is that for many of us, our definition of faith is wrong. We’re told that we must have faith God will do something for us, like healing us from our diseases. But that’s not faith! Faith is believing God - period. It’s as simple as that. God is not a genie in a bottle who answers our every whim. He can do what He wants. We are called to believe Him, not for what He can do for us, but for whom He is. Stop and think about that for a moment. No one wants to be friends with someone who likes you because of what you’ll do for them. You want to be friends with someone because they like you. God is the same way. He wants a relationship with us. That’s what faith is – believing God is the one true God. He’s the all-powerful, ever-present Lord of all creation, and He loves you and me. It’s saying that you know God is bigger and greater than you. He sees and understands things we can’t begin to comprehend, and He will do what’s best for us.

That’s the next thing that hinders us in believing God. We think since we’re sick and going through a difficult time, that must mean God doesn’t love us. Again, that’s WRONG! Time after time in Scripture we see people going through sickness, financial difficulties, hardship, and even death, yet God was with them. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is found in Daniel 3. For those who aren’t familiar with this passage, King Nebuchadnezzar built a 90-foot statue and ordered everyone to bow down to it. Knowing they would be sentenced to death by fire if they didn’t obey, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to worship anyone other than God. Their faith in God was rewarded by them being thrown into a fiery furnace. Not much of a reward if you ask me. Yet I’ve learned something through studying this passage. There are three things which can happen when we’re praying to be delivered from something. The first is that we can be delivered from the fire. This is when the doctor runs tests, we pray the tests show nothing negative, and God answers our prayer and everything is okay. This is the one we all hope for. The second way we can be delivered from a trial is by going through the fire. This is where a lot of us are at. The test results come back, the doctor gives us a diagnosis, and we have to learn how to live with a chronic illness. We’ll come back next week and talk in more detail about this. The last way we can be delivered from a trial is we can be delivered by the fire. This is the one we struggle with the most. It’s when we’re praying for someone’s healing and the person dies.

This is heavy stuff. There’s a reason why so many Christians struggle to believe God. It’s not that He’s not trustworthy, but this area makes us take a step back and question if God is who He says He is and if He will do what He says He will do. God’s Word has so much to say about this that we’re going to camp on this topic for a couple of weeks, because if we aren’t honest with ourselves and with God, we will never get past this. God wants us to believe Him with every area of our lives. He can handle your questions. Don’t hide from Him. As you go through this next week, I encourage you to set aside some time to pray about this. Examine your heart and see if you wrestle with this topic. You might be surprised at what God has to say.

“Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” ~ Jeremiah 33:3

© March 2, 2017

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More Than Anything

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When Sickness Prevails...

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