Me: How is the night?
Prodigal: It’s as dark as a cup of truck-stop coffee.
Me: Stay near the fire as I share a story.
This is from the book Psalm 91 by Peggy Ruth and Angelia Schum
Because I was very young in my conviction, and struggling hard to maintain it in the midst of a world that does not believe in the supernatural goodness of God, I was devastated when a thought came into my mind one morning as I was getting ready to go to church: If God wants us to walk in health, why did He create germs?” That one thought was attempting to completely dismantle my faith in the newfound truth that God had provided healing in the atonement.
In fact, I was so distraught I didn’t even think I could motivate myself to go to church that morning. I remember going into my bedroom where I literally fell on my face before God, asking Him how those two facts could possibly be reconciled. As clear as a bell, God spoke in my spirit: “Trust Me, get up and go, and I will give you an answer.” I got up with mixed emotions. I had unmistakably heard God speak to my spirit, but I could see no way in which He could satisfactorily resolve that question that had stuck in my head. Why would God create a germ to make us sick, if He did in fact want us to walk in divine health? I went to church that morning under a cloud of heaviness, and I couldn’t tell you what subject the pastor, Bert Maxfield, preached on. But somewhere in the middle of his sermon he made this statement: “God made everything good. Take germs, for instance–germs are nothing more than microscopic plants and animals that the enemy perverted and uses to spread disease.” Then he stopped and, with a strange look on his face, said, “I have no idea where that thought came from. It was not in my notes.” He went right on with his sermon. I must admit I almost disturbed the entire service because I couldn’t keep from bouncing up and down on the pew. The awesomeness of God was more than I could take in without it erupting out of me. God could not have done anything that would have strengthened my faith for healing more than that incident did that morning.
May God strengthen you today that has you bouncing up and down!
1 Corinthians 11:32
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
