"My suffering brings me closer to God and makes me more like Jesus."
How it sounds in your head: The most spiritual people I know have suffered greatly. Maybe this pain is mystical communion with His sufferings. Maybe healing would actually distance me from the deep intimacy this hardship creates.
"For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men."
-- Lamentations 3:31-33Religious mysticism romanticizes suffering as superior spirituality, confusing the 'fellowship of His sufferings' (dying to self) with glorifying disease.
When you've found God's presence intense during hospital stays and felt profound in pain, linking suffering with closeness feels experientially validated. The deepest prayers often come from desperate places.
Lying sick with fever, unable to serve or function. Jesus came in, touched her hand—the fever left IMMEDIATELY, and she AROSE and SERVED them, freed to fulfill purpose.
I REFUSE the lie that suffering creates intimacy with God. IT IS WRITTEN that He does not afflict willingly nor grieve His children. Jesus DESTROYED sickness; He didn't distribute it for character development. I fellowship with His sufferings by crucifying my flesh, not by exalting disease. IT IS WRITTEN that He Himself took my infirmities—past tense, FINISHED. I receive healing NOW and pursue Him with the ENERGY and CLARITY that health provides. The BARAK blessing means I prosper in health, spirit, and relationship with Him simultaneously. I am healed, whole, close to Him in VIBRANT LIFE, not religious suffering.
The Father isn't using cancer to create connection—He sent His Son to DESTROY it so you could run to Him unhindered. He's closer than your breath whether you're sick or well, but He prefers you WELL and FREE.