Week Three: Day Three
The Story
Matt underwent the greatest attack against his immune system that he had ever gone through. The flu virus hit his entire community in the strongest manner than it ever had. It was even being reported on the national news as the worst outbreak on record.
While Matt had received the flu shot, it had been four months since his immunization. His mother had recommended he get a flu booster shot two weeks before, but Matt refused. Now here he was, lying in bed, feeling worse than he ever had.
Matt called his new fiancé, Anna, and told her the news of his illness. Anna was unaffected by the flu. She was intentional about eating well and always staying on schedule with a complete set of multivitamins. She was never insistent that Matt eat specific foods, but she always encouraged him to eat healthier. Now she asked him to go to the doctor. But, Matt told her that he wanted to wait it out. He also believed God would heal him.
Matt’s friend Daniel also contracted the flu. Unlike Matt, he went to the doctor after the first symptoms. He had friends who were going through the same thing and he didn’t want to get behind on his project that was due at work that week. The doctor recommended a newly released medicine that eliminates the flu in two days. Daniel took that medication.
Matt’s flu lingered on. It was not until day five that he agreed to see the doctor. His doctor told Matt that he wished he had come in sooner. He received the same new medicine as Daniel and it cleared the flu up that day. He learned with that sickness to trust his fiancé, trust his friends, but most of all, to take care of himself consistently and not just when he is sick. He learned how God can use medicine as an answer to prayer just as much as a miraculous healing.
The Devotion
Before we begin, what you are about to read next is an elementary understanding of pharmaceuticals. While I am sure the illustration is one to which everyone can relate, I don’t want anyone getting bogged down in my simple understanding of how the human body functions. Now, onward!
Vitamins are supplements you take to keep a healthy body stable and functioning at its best. They can boost the immune system. Medicine, on the other hand, should only be prescribed after a sickness has been properly diagnosed. Medicine works to get your body back to a state of good health.
How often is prayer portrayed in movies and TV shows like medicine that is mentioned above? The actor, in a moment of desperation, looks up to a God he hasn’t spoken to since he was a kid and let loose a prayer of such significance that it wrenches the soul. It makes for a moving scene. In real life that man would be performing from a deficit. Moving or not, he would be in trouble.
Reading our Bibles, spending time with God through prayer, and times of worship should be more like taking vitamins than medicine. They should be more than a response to an immune system attack. Ephesians 6 is the story of preparedness. Put on the full armor of God.
We all understand this. During football season, an offensive lineman plays what seems like four minutes out of every game. Due to TV commercials and the downtime between actual plays, a lineman spends 100:1 of his time preparing for the little time spent performing on the field. What if he trained off the field with a 1:1 ratio? He wouldn’t perform well at all. His training before the game allows his muscles to explode into the opposing player during the game.
I sincerely encourage you to get in the game. Take your vitamins. Work from a spiritual surplus. The only way that I know to do this is through Spiritual discipline. You can’t give to others what you don’t have yourself. Find time for the Word of God in your daily life. If praying is new, begin small. Be consistent and find someone ahead of you who can encourage you.
The Bible
Ephesians 6 | Psalm 91 | Matthew 25
The Prayer
“Dear Lord Jesus, I pray to You today that I would be guarded against the evil one. May truth be my guiding light. Let me live in right standing with You all my days. May I run with the readiness of the gospel of peace. Let my faith extinguish the evil one’s arrows. Make salvation a wall around me and may Your Word be written on my heart and be as sharp as a sword. And when I have done all else Lord, let me stand. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
