The other day I saw a patient who was complaining of severe back pain. It was affecting her work, keeping her awake at night, and just generally making life miserable. She begged me to do something for her.
In looking at her chart, I discovered she’d been seen in the ER for this condition just a few days before. I asked her if the muscle relaxant and pain medicine she’d been prescribed were helping at all. She replied, “Oh, I never filled the prescriptions. I don’t like taking pills.”
People like this drive me crazy! Offered potential relief from their suffering, they would rather wallow in their pain, making themselves and all around them miserable, then do something they find inconvenient. Well, newsflash! Medicine doesn’t work if you don’t take it!
But am I any better? Far too often I moan and groan about how miserable life can be, falling into depression and despair over my own sins, mistakes, and disappointments, while all the while the remedy for all that ails me sits unopened on the shelf.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
In the pages of God’s Word you will find “…salve to put on your eyes, so you can see” (Rev. 3:18), the balm of Gilead to soothe your soul (Jer. 8:22), and living water that you will thirst no more (John 4:10).
Are you in mourning? In the Bible you’ll discover the oil of joy to soothe your soul. (Isaiah 61:3) Depressed? “God…comforts the downcast.” (2 Cor. 7:6). Weighed down with guilt? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.“ (1 John 1:9).
Are you without hope? Scripture tells us of a God of hope, ready and willing to “fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13). Lost? God’s Word “…is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Ps. 119:105).
Whatever your affliction, the Bible offers the remedy. But, just as my patient got no relief from the medicine she didn’t take, so God’s Word won’t do you any good while it sits on the shelf, unopened and unread.
Why suffer any longer? Every day, before you do anything else, take your “medicine”. Open God’s Word and drink it in!
But don’t stop there! Take what you learn and share it with a friend in pain, that they too may find relief. If you do, “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear…” (Isaiah 58:8)
So, this Sabbath, remember to take your medicine! Open God’s Word! It’s good for you!