SIN & SICKNESS
Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, on completion of the building of the temple, offered a prayer of dedication to the Lord (1 Kings 8:22-61). In this prayer he makes several petitions (requests) and declarations to the Lord on behalf of the people.
He begins with a declaration of the goodness, might and faithfulness of God towards His people – always a good place to commence in prayer! He then proceeds to pray into the many areas of life that befall us as humans. When we wrong one another, when we are defeated because of sin our life, when the heavens are shut up and there is no rain and so on. He entreats (asks earnestly) the Lord to bring justice, restoration, forgiveness, send the rain etc in order for healing to come. He concludes in v56 with a declaration of praise and recognition for all the promises given by Moses none of which had failed to come to pass.
There are some wonderful keys for us in this passage. When we approach God for healing, be it physical, emotional or spiritual an excellent place to begin is with a declaration of His goodness, might and power – not because He needs reminding, but in order to remind US of His exceeding great power that is at work towards those who believe (Eph 1:19).
Confession of any known (or unknown) sin is next ‘on the agenda.’ David made it clear in Psalm 32 when he kept silent, in other words when he tried to hide or deny his sin (in this case with Bathsheba), his bones wasted away. He was literally sick to the bones and indeed suffering physically because of hidden sin in his life or perhaps more correctly the issue of him trying to hide or deny his sin. His vitality was likened to a drought in summer (v4). He then has a pause moment – Selah. Once he had acknowledged and confessed his sin, he was forgiven and his health restored.
Please be assured here I am not in any way saying if you have sickness in your body there must be sin in your life. All I am trying to make clear from the Scriptures is there is a place for examining our hearts and minds and allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal to us any areas needing His illuminating touch. It takes courage to allow God’s Word to shine into those recesses in our heart where we may have been harbouring unforgiveness, bitterness, jealously etc or even trying to conceal an area of sin. God sees all sin as sin. Covering it up and trying to hide it only makes matters worse. Repentance simply means agreeing with God. The Bible says ALL have sinned and fallen short of His glory (Rom 3:23) but John reminds us that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Let me encourage you today to ask the Lord to shine His light into any areas of your life that need illumination in order for healing to come – trust me it’s a wonderful thing to do and His restoration and healing is always given in measure abundantly more than you could imagine!