I know she meant well, saying it out of love and fervent care for me as a suffering Christian. She wanted to offer a method to achieve God’s ‘total healing” on earth. She told me I must declare that “I am healed” because of Jesus’ death on the cross, which would then produce my physical healing.
Beloved in Christ, I’m not sure which of Satan’s lies are the worst, for they all attack Jesus Himself, but this is undoubtedly one of them.
Countless numbers of women write me with a threatened faith in Christ, because of this lie. They’ve declared and proclaimed and shouted it to the rooftops…and they still live with their illnesses, disabilities, sorrow-full situations at home, their chronic, ongoing suffering on earth. For years.
They’ve been told to have hope that disappoints us.
The enemy would like nothing more than for us to turn away from our God, in our disappointment.
When our earthly hopes and desires for something specific are daily shattered and disappointment threatens to take us down, what do we do with it all?
Hope that will not disappoint us, as we humbly come to God with everything
We talk to Jesus. We lament to our Abba Father. We throw every one of our cares on Him (1 Pet. 5:7). We make long lists of every fear and tear and honestly give them to Him. We humbly ask Him for help to rest in His perfect care.
We find release and peace when we rest in our hope in Christ, not in our works of prayer to make suffering go away.
Hope that will not disappoint us rests us…from trying to be God.
Our Lord is carrying me through chronic pain and an incurable brain condition with His Word’s truth. I have to shut off the lies that so many are spreading, false teaching about our own works, trying to manipulate our loving God. I must refute lies of the enemy who is trying to make me doubt who God is. I have to refuse anything that causes me to forget or dismiss the hope we’ve been gifted as believers in Christ…it’s eternal hope.
Let’s both ask Him to help us hang on to this sure hope, in faith and trust!
I have no doubt He will totally heal every one of His beloved in Christ, for sure, in glory! And no doubt that He will heal both of us on earth according to His perfect plan of love for us. Of course, He can miraculously remove every symptom I’m still experiencing after a second brain surgery. But what is faith, trust, hope, or loving my God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mk. 12:30)?
Loving Him, believing in Him…
is humbly trusting Him with my life.
Like Job…and like Jesus…I must ask Him for help with this:
I must ask him for help to hope in my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, my Lord, my loving Father God, my Holy Spirit as He guides me to my true home:
If thou but suffer God to guide thee,
and hope in him through all thy ways,
he’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,
and bear thee through the evil days:
Who trusts in God’s unchanging love
builds on the Rock that naught can move.
(“If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee,” Neumark, 1641, trans. by C. Winkworth, 1855, 1863)
Hope in Christ alone, hope that will not disappoint us
I had to fight the lies the instant I read her comment. The enemy’s temptations are real when suffering is intense! What is biblical hope?
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:19 ESV).
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded,
set your hope fully
on the grace that will be brought to you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:13 ESV, emphasis added).
Hope in Christ will not disappoint us, as we suffer!
Lying in yet another brain MRI tube recently, this Scripture rang over and over with each rhythmic knock:
We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,
endurance produces proven character,
and proven character produces hope (Rom. 5:2-4 CSB).
Only be still, and wait his leisure
in cheerful hope, with heart content
to take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure
and all deserving love hath sent;
nor doubt our inmost wants are known
to him who chose us for his own.
So, how do we pray with hope that will not disappoint us?
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Mt. 6:9-13 ESV).
Sing, pray, and keep his ways unswerving,
so do thine own part faithfully,
and trust his Word – though undeserving,
thou yet shalt find it true for thee;
God never yet forsook at need
the soul that trusted him indeed.
Material adapted from Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering, Lauri A. Hogle, © 2022
A playlist to sing Christ’s hope into our ongoing suffering
Sister in Christ, I often sing to Him through tears, asking Him for help to keep going with this solid hope. I currently use these weekly playlist gifts in bedridden times and in times when I’m attempting neurological rehab work. Ongoing suffering is filled with daily disappointment, isn’t it?
I’m singing Christ’s hope into chronic suffering, for I want to fight the lies of our tempter, as Jesus did!
If this week’s playlist of our “true hope in Christ in song” would help you too, sign up here and it will come to your email with my love and prayer, as we walk alongside each other.
For Scripture devotionals, calming hymns, and encouragement from Lauri, click here for YouTube podcast
For Scripture and hymn podcast to help ease symptoms of chronic pain and illnesses, click here
To read more of Lauri’s writing, you can use her devotional Bible study lament prayer journals: Praying God’s Promises Into Suffering, or Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character as We Suffer, or Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering. In the Valleys of God’s Love is written for children aged 3-8, a perfect read for grandparents, parents, and children to share together, preparing them for suffering to come.
