HEALING INVOLVING LIFE AND DEATH, Part 2
Previously, I wrote that a team of elite doctors seem to have little hope of my nephew being healed of a critical illness. But the Word of God says, ““Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).
RECAPPING MY NEPHEW’S CRITICAL CASE
The doctors said my nephews cancer had spread to his bones, and the bone marrow was not producing enough blood to sustain his life. The family and my nephew were perplexed about to do. To increase my nephew’s faith in the love and power of God, I turn to God’s Word. I referenced scriptures from the Bible: “give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (I Peter 5:7). And he “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us… by Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:20-21).
I told him about the scripture where Jesus did more than heal a man name Lazarus who was critically ill; Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45).
WORKING WITH FAMILY INVOLVING NEPHEW’S LIFE AND DEATH CASE
One of my nephew’s sisters was his health care proxy. She believes in Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord. We agreed we needed to pray and work more closely together about the spiritual and physical concerns of our critical ill relative, whom we called “C.” His sister, being very sensitive to his feelings, said “C is “afraid of dying.”
Many people may be afraid of dying for reasons that may include (but not necessarily limited to) the following thing said in the Bible:
- Jesus said, “Light [the Son of God] has come into the world, but [some] people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
- To some who may feel too sinful to be forgiven, the Son of God says whoever believes in him as Savior, “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men…but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:31-32).
- Some people may feel they have not done enough good works to earn their way into heaven. But the Bible says people are saved by the grace of God by believing in the atoning death of Jesus Christ; not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:16).
- God Word tells us that some people have been deceive and held captive by the devil. But those of us know and live by the truth are instructed to: gently instruct those who have evidently been deceived. Then “Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants” (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
FOLLOWING JESUS’ EXAMPLE IN DEALING WITH LIFE AND DEATH ISSUES
Jesus tells his followers, “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). He said: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends;” yet, Jesus died for us while we were still sinners (John 15:13; Romans 5:8).
Before Jesus died and was resurrected as the mediator between God and mankind, he went around “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23; Acts 10:38).
With the help and power of the Holy Spirit that God gives believers, we are able to love like Christ (John 14:15-17; Romans 8:29).
POINTING TO SOME SCRIPTURES WE CAN FOLLOW TO SHOW THE LOVE OF CHRIST FOR THOSE WITH LIFE AND DEATH PROBLEMS:
- Trust in the Lord [in his inspired Word] with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall [a]direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)).
- Pray for God’s will to be done; and trust in his love and power (Luke 11:1-4; 1 John 5:14-15).
- Pray for others to know Christ (1 Timothy 2:1-6).“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).
- Give them a Bible example of the free gift and grace of God through Christ: One of two criminals who died beside Jesus on the cross recognized him as the Son of God. This sinner said: “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” 43 And [Jesus] said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:39-43).
- Die to self and let Christ be seen in you (Galatians 2:20).
- Visit and “Comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (Matthew 25:36:2 Corinthians 1:4)
- Do good as God gives you opportunity (Galatians 6:10).
After the apostle Paul believed in and trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, despite Paul’s many afflictions, he said, “for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, he assures us we are prepared to live or die—to live with him in heaven forever (John 14:3; Revelation 21:4).
