The Sick Bed and the Death Bed

UV 1391/10,000 The Sick Bed and the Death Bed
The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
Psalm 41 v 3

The Lord will remove the “sick bed” and the “death bed” from our house according to His words of promise contained in this uni-verse. There are times when all of us, even the healthiest fall sick. At those times, He promises to strengthen us and to heal us. He will make us whole again. He is Jehovah Rapha, the Healer. God’s love is unconditional but His promises are conditional. The promises in Psalm 41 depends on our obedience in showing regard for the weak. When we show regard for the weak, then the Lord will deliver us in times of trouble when peace of mind, health, well being and success are driven away from us. He will bless us in our land and not surrender us to the desire or design of our foes. When we are on a “sick bed”, he will sustain us and restore us.

Last week when I got a LPG subsidy for the first time in my life and was informed through a electronic message from the bank, I decided I did not need it. Instead I should give it away, meet a little need, spread a little goodness in a world where human heads are being cruelly chopped off like chicken heads. It was given to the lowest paid in my office. Yesterday, again when I got an intimation of a second subsidy credit, I asked one of my officers to find the poorest and neediest person near our office. It does not take much investigation to find the needy in our immediate environs. He brought a woman who had lost all her fingers to leprosy and had a daughter to support. Indeed, whatsoever and however little, like my little act of giving away a subsidy I never needed to the needy, we do to the least of our brethren that we do unto the Lord. The Lord is no man’s debtor. He writes the things we do that are not required out of a sense of obligation or duty or compulsion but out of pure charity, to demonstrate the love of God to our fellow beings, in the credit side of our spiritual balance sheets. He will look for a time to repay us here and now by delivering us from trouble, from the snares of the enemy, from sickness, crisis and death. I also asked my colleagues and subordinates as well as friends and contacts on social media to do likewise and try to give away their subsidy to the needy.

The question may arise that despite this uni-verse, both death, crisis and sickness does overtake from time to time even the faithful. I have lost a couple of good and faithful friends well before their time. The answer is that God in His sovereignty decides how to fulfil His will in different individuals’ lives. When it happens, we should just re-affirm our faith in the Lord and His goodness, that He never makes mistakes and that there are things and events we can never fully comprehend or explain. Our faith is tested at such times. We can only submit ourselves and surrender all to Jesus. Of course, in our deep hearts we can pray preventive prayers well before events happen, “ Lord, keep my eyes from tears, my heart from pain, my mind from anguish and my feet from stumbling.”
Prateep V Philip