Matthew 9:12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”
2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
The closer we want to get to God, the further we have to distance ourselves from…well, ourselves. We have to be emptied of ourselves (who, in our human nature, are selfish, prideful, stubborn beings), which are the opposite of God and His perfect nature. We have to surrender. We have to surrender our lives–our lives that we are so accustomed to living out on our own terms, the lives that are lived in separation from God. But in order to surrender, we must first come to terms with the fact that we are finite, in need of direction, and that if we continue in this fight operating in our own strength, we will die.
No one is forced into surrendering. Surrender is a choice that you make after considering all of your options. You will definitely want to consider all of your options because an unconditional surrender is just that: giving up EVERYTHING and submitting to someone else’s leadership. People don’t do that because they just feel like it. Our nature won’t allow it. There is a humility that comes in surrendering. Realizing your own shortfalls and knowing that you can’t cure your ills…and seeing, accepting, and recognizing that there is someone who can.
We should be mindful to take care of our physical bodies, by going in for regular check ups with our physicians for preventative measures. Especially as we get older, we need to make sure that everything with our health is going well and to catch any potential problem and treating it before it turns into a bigger issue that’s a lot harder (and more painful and expensive) to treat. How much more important is it to take care of our spirit–the spirit that will stick with us for eternity (1 Timothy 4:8)? Keeping in constant contact with our Creator, soaking up His word and allowing Him to expose our hearts so that we might be changed is so essential. Having our issues exposed before it’s a lot more painful and costly to treat makes us stronger, healthier Christians. Some of us however, even when presented with our issues (both physically and spiritually,) absolutely refuse to admit that there is a problem that needs to be dealt with. We try to diminish the reality of just how poor our health is in order to make us feel more comfortable and keep us from facing reality. Unfortunately, reality doesn’t disappear just because we refuse to acknowledge its existence.
If we are too stubborn and prideful to see that we are sick, how are we going to be humble enough to go visit the Doctor? God is calling us. He wants us to be healed of everything that separates us from Him. But there is a price. And that price is us giving up everything. It is costly but so worth it!