Every morning my husband is faithful to a multi-vitamin and vitamin C regimen. And he is hardly ever sick.
(Sorry ladies, he's taken!)
In an attempt to follow his good example, I joined him as he "medicated" himself every morning. The multi-vitamin I can do, but the vitamin C...how can something so good for you be so difficult to get down? I finally bowed to the discomfort and gave up.
You can guess the consequences. Last week I was brought down by some vile illness and had to work from home so that I could recline on the couch with my head on a pillow. In this position the nausea and headache abated enough for me to get some work done on the laptop propped in my lap. And I got a lot done...until the day drew to a close and my fever spiked. I went to bed wrapped in a thermal blanket...in HOUSTON...during the month of JUNE...to ward off the chill. Illness is no respecter of season or geographic location.
Then there was the time (as in, yesterday) that I enjoyed a lovely lunch with a good friend at Panera. Panera's soup in a sourdough bread bowl has been good to me in the past, but, feeling adventurous, I went with a chicken sandwich instead. After the lovely lunch I returned to work, only to spend the afternoon longing for the privacy of my bathroom at home. There are some things that you just shouldn't do in a public toilet (that's right, I said it). More nausea and chills. The internal drama eventually passed (no pun intended) and I was able to return to my exciting life as a software developer.
The last couple of weeks we've learned about a sheep's need to be free from fear and hunger in order to rest and applied this physical lesson to our spiritual needs. Today we will talk about the need to be free from disease.
Spiritual Illness
God often uses physical examples to reveal spiritual truth. Last week we were able to better understand spiritual desire with the example of physical hunger. So what is the spiritual correlation to physical disease? See if you can figure it out by reading the following verses:
Romans 5:12 - "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned"
Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Galatians 6:7-8 - "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
James 1:15 - "Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."
Do you see it? We learn from these verses that sin results in spiritual death.
Sin: Topic Overview and Symptoms
All of the vitamin C in the world will not cure the human race from the illnesses and diseases that are part of the human condition. We are familiar with the symptoms of physical ailment - fever, headache, nausea, loss of energy, to name a few. But what are the symptoms of spiritual illness - sin? Refer to Psalm 32:
3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.4 For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
Selah5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD "—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin.
Selah
Psalm 38 also shows the symptoms of sin. If I were to submit an entry to WebMD for Sin, I would include the following as symptoms:
- Groans
- Loss of energy
- Wounds
- Searing pain
- Pounding heart
- Depression
- Desperation
Home Treatment
In order to complete our fictional WebMD entry, we need to know how to treat the illness of sin. Is there a home treatment?
For the answer, refer back to Romans 6:23. Jesus, our Shepherd, provides us spiritual health. John 3:36 spells it out more clearly - "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." To embark on the road to spiritual health, we must admit, "Jesus, I'm a sinner and You are my Savior. Please come into my heart."
But what do we do when we have accepted Jesus but have allowed sin to creep in? This is a universal problem. None of us can live a sinless life. Refer back to Psalm 32:5. The cure to this sin problem is to acknowledge the sin. Stop covering it up. Confess it to God. He will forgive.
And rest in the arms of the Forgiver.
Now it's your turn. Tell us...
- What would you add as a symptom to our WebMD entry for sin?
- What does it feel like to confess and receive forgiveness?
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