I'm Just a Scaredy Cat! But Jesus is My Superhero!

I would like to share with you my thoughts and the meditations of my heart that originate from God's word.

God has a plan for those that are born with a disability and those that become disabled in this life.  God's word tells me that God plans for and allows disabilities.

Exodus 4:11

Then the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth?  

Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?  

Is it not I, the Lord?

Disability brings intense suffering.  It can be hard to understand how God can design something that brings such suffering.  I do know that God has an understanding and mind that is not like ours.  We are finite, he is infinite in his understanding.

Isaiah 55:8

"My thoughts are not like your thoughts.  

And your ways are not like my ways," announces the Lord.  

Epidermolysis Bullosa is just one of many physical and mental conditions that results in intense suffering. Why would God do this?  Why would he allow such suffering?  We can get some insight from the following scriptures.

John 9:1-3

As Jesus went along, he saw a man who was blind.  He had been blind since he was born.  Jesus disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned?  Was this man born blind because he sinned?  Or did his parents sin?"  "It isn't because this man sinned," said Jesus.  "It isn't because his parents sinned.  This happened so that God's work 

could be shown in his life." 

How can this be?  Isn't suffering the result of sin?  Yes, Suffering is the result of sin!  Without sin there would be no suffering.  Jesus is not saying here that suffering is not the cause of sin.  We live in a world that is filled with sin.  When sin entered the world: suffering  and death entered. 

Romans 5:12

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, 

and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

In John 9:1-3, Jesus is saying that specific sins do not cause specific disabilities.  There was no, one person, to blame for this man's blindness.  Sin does cause disability (and death, as seen in Romans 5:12) but Jesus went on to answer even more than just the question of the root cause.  He tells us the purpose of this man's blindness.  He states, "This happened so that God's work could be shown in his life." 

How can this be accomplished?  How can God's work be shown in the lives of those with disabilities.  I believe in two ways.  First in divine healing.  I do believe that God can heal those that are sick and suffering.  If we finish reading the remaining part of the story, told in the book of John, we will see how Jesus heals the blind man.  

John 9:4-7

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.  Night is coming, when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."  After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes.  "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam."  So the man went and washed, 

and came home seeing.  

Jesus divinely healed the man.  He showed the greatness and power that only God holds.  If you continue to read in John 9, you will see that the religious leaders did not want to acknowledge that Jesus healed the man.  They tried to claim that he was never blind to begin with; that this was a different man.  After the man's parents arrived and confirmed that this indeed was their son that was born blind, the religious leaders demanded to know how he was made to see.  The man then correctly gives the glory to God. 

John 9: 33 

 "If this man had not come from God, he could do nothing."

God divinely healed this man and I believe He still can heal today.  While Jesus walked this earth, there are many accounts of his healing the sick.  Often the Bible states that he healed ALL of them.

  

Matthew 4:24

News about him spread all over Syria.  People brought to him all who were ill with different kinds of sicknesses.  Some were suffering great pain.  Others were controlled by demons.  Some were shaking wildly.  Others couldn't move at all.  And Jesus healed all of them. 

I will admit that we don't see these types of healing anymore.  Something bigger than physical healing is soon to happen in Jesus ministry.  He hints at it in the following verses.  

John 9:4-5

"While it is still day, we must do the work of the 

One who sent me.  

Night is coming. Then no one can work.  

While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 

We have seen Jesus's goodness in physical and mental healing but now He shows his goodness in an even greater way.  You see after he healed those that were sick, Jesus took on the ultimate suffering through his death.  Not only did he die a physical death on a cross, but he took upon him, the sins of the world and all of the suffering that came with that sin.  

2 Corinthians 5:21

Christ didn't have any sin.  

But God made him become sin for us.  

So we can be made right with God 

because of what Christ has done for us. 

Don't miss this.  This is so important.  Christ did this for us so that we can be made right with God.  We no longer have to be ashamed or guilt ridden.  Christ paid the price for our sin.  He did it with his own life. Our sinless God, became sin so that we would not have to suffer!  What?  Suffering has not ended!  You are correct.  Suffering has not ended but it will...

Revelation 21:4

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these thing are gone forever."

Remember, the purpose of suffering is to show how great our God is; his works, his awesomeness  his power and his strength.  We have seen how this was shown in divine healing but now, it can be shown in our lives regardless of the level of pain we are experiencing.  One way is in our expression of our hope for the future:

Romans 8:23-25

We believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.  We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.  We were given this hope when we were saved.  (If we already have something, we don't need to hope for it.  But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

There is another example of God's work shown in the lives of the disabled and suffering.  It is when the physical and emotional pain of the disability strengthens to the point of consuming us, but we are not consumed.  How?  Even in the most horrific pain, Christ is there and he provides the strength and ability to endure the pain.  

2 Corinthisans 12:9 

My grace is sufficient for you, 
for my power is made perfect in weakness.  

God may not show his power by healing but he does provide the ability for us to endure and to walk through the pain.  His power is what is made known when we are weak.  His works are made known in our suffering.  

To quote AJ, "I am just a Scaredy Cat but Jesus is my Superhero."  His statement may seem insignificant in the face of your pain today but for AJ it's a child like faith where he finds God's strength in his weakness.  

Thanks for listening and may God give you the eyes to see his works that you may accept his death and suffering, finding His strength in your pain today.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

For our present troubles are small and won't last very long.  Yest they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.  For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.  

Barbara