Salvation Summaries

By way of background, I have had health problems for more than three years. My main problems are chronic fatigue, insomnia and a few others I won’t mention. I’ve seen more than 20 different medical professionals (including doctors of internal medicine, endocrinologists, ENT doctors, a gastroenterologist, allergist, dietitians, etc.), had three sinus surgeries, and tried a number of diets in an effort to correct these problems. Although I have improved somewhat over time, there does not appear to be a near-term path for complete healing, which is discouraging. Add to this, a little over five weeks ago I caught covid (for the second time), and my nurse believes it is “long covid.” The answer to prayer I’m about to tell you relates to this.

Approximately two weeks ago, when I was laying down on the couch and feeling sorry for myself over my health problems in general but my inability to get rid of covid in particular, I began to wonder what might happen to me. I thought I would eventually recover from covid, but what if I didn’t? What if, under a worst case scenario, I died from it? Would I be OK with that?

As Christians, we should not fear death, for we know where we will go after we die. God is with us now as believers (Christ lives in me), and will be with us in heaven too. But in reality, when death begins to look at, or for, you (even if from irrational fears), anxiety can rise, or at least it did for me.

After complaining some to God about my health, I realized that the right thing to do was to accept whatever He had in store for me. If I were to recover soon from covid, that would be preferred (of course), and I would gladly accept it. If I would eventually recover from long covid, but not necessarily return to full health, I could accept that, even though I wouldn’t like it. And, if I were to die from covid, well, I didn’t want that. But IF that’s what God was going to allow, THEN, I guess…”OK.” I must confess, I had to mentally and emotionally wrestle with this last option. Would I really accept it or not? I had to, and after a few minutes I resigned to doing so.

So, to know what God had in store for me, I decided to turn to His word and look for an answer there. At that moment, I believed God would show me what He wanted, but I also realized that I would have to accept whatever I found. If the verse or verses I randomly selected talked about healing or something to that effect, then I believed that that would take place. However, if they said that “so and so unexpectedly died,” then I would need to accept that as what would happen to me. Now, if I were to tell you I wasn’t a little scared in doing this, that would be a lie – I was, even though I should not have been.

To determine where to look in my Bible, I decided to simply open it up to somewhere in the middle. I would then scan the left and/or right page to find a verse or verses that pertained to my situation. Although randomly selecting a verse may not be the best way of finding an answer to prayer, I believed in this case it would.

So, with determination but some trepidation too, I picked up my Bible, opened it up, and my eyes landed on the left page, Psalm 33. I skimmed through a few verses on God’s creation, and realized that they didn’t apply. I then turned my eyes to the right page, Psalm 34, where I saw this title, “The LORD, a Provider and the One who Rescues Me.” Ah, this was comforting. I quickly read through part of the Psalm until I got to verse 4, which says, “I sought the LORD (on the authority of His word) and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears.” Wow. This clearly pertained to my prayer. I did seek the Lord, and He now answered me with this verse. The answer was not that I would be physically healed necessarily, but that my fear (of not being healed or death) would go away.

I then went on to read verse 6, which says, “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him from all his troubles.” (Psalm 34:6). What a relief! Here was another answer, and it was one I wanted to hear- that I would be healed from my “trouble” of covid. I didn’t know when I would be healed, but that I would be healed was enough for me.

Now, I don’t want to imply from this experience that I, or any other Christian, can simply randomly select a verse from the Bible for every prayer request, and that we will find an answer. I’ve tried doing this before, and in most cases none of the verses related to my request. However, this time was different. I really believed that God was going to provide an answer for me; I just had to accept whatever it was. The same can happen to you. God is good.