Chronic Illness
The process of developing right thinking is explained in Philippians 4:4-9 “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.”
There are four points that need to be understood from this passage in order to develop right thinking patterns. The first step is to instill a spirit of rejoicing in your life. It says in Isaiah 61:3 to “put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness”. The way to develop the positive thinking of praise in your life is through having set times through the day to consider things that you can praise God for. I recommend that you keep a 3×5 card file and on one of these cards write three things that you can thank God for each morning, noon and evening. Doing this three times each day will give you a directed pattern of praise. Of course at first it may be hard to think of three things that you can thank God for because you have developed negative thinking patterns but the more that you practice this the more you will find that it lifts the vail of dark emotions that have tried to overcome you.
The second step in changing your thinking is to purpose moderation in your life. It is easy when one area of your life is out of control to allow other areas to follow suit. The scriptures said “let your moderation be known”, this means that what areas you can control you should. I don’t mean what people, I mean you can control some aspects of your daily routine, you can control your medications by not abusing them, you can control your diet, television viewing, social media posting and many other aspects of your life. Don’t allow one area that is beyond your control allow the rest of your life to become uncontrolled as well. Realizing that you still have a lot of control in life will help you direct your thinking to where it should be.
The third step in changing your thinking is to develop a real personal relationship with God. This itself is key in gaining control over the spiritual aspects of dealing with chronic problems. In order to have a real relationship with God you first must know Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. If you don’t know Christ as your Saviour I encourage you to learn more about how you can through the Bible studies offered here. If you do know Christ as your Saviour it is important that you develop a close and intimate fellowship with Him through personal devotions. I encourage you to keep a devotional journal and make a record of your devotional time each day. Put the date in the top right corner so that you can be honest about your consistency. Write the passage that you are reading on the top left and in the first couple of lines write notes about your prayer time that day. I use the Lord’s model prayer as a template for my prayer time, that gives me five sections for prayer. First I spend time praising God for what He has done in my life and for who He is. I then spend time asking Him what He wants me to do for Him today, I ask who He wants me to minister to or witness to. It is important to ask God to help you minister to others, remember that as bad as things may be for you others have needs as well. After this I ask God to meet my personal needs and I ask if there is anything that He wants me to ask for. The fourth part of my prayer is to ask forgiveness for my personal sins and also to ask God if there is anyone I need to forgive. Sometimes harboring unforgiveness toward others is a greater burden to cary than physical illness. Finally I spend time praying for the needs of others.
