A retired minister doing hospital work, says, \u201cThe chaplains try to combat the seven enemies of the sickroom \u2013 pain, anxiety, hostility, guilt feelings, boredom, despair, and loneliness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How wonderfully the Saviour, by His presence, power, and grace, can meet each of these problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to \u201cpain\u201d or any other thorn in the flesh, Christ has said, \u201d \u2026 My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me\u201d (2 Corinthians 12:9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to \u201canxiety,\u201d Jesus said, \u201d \u2026 Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?\u201d (Matthew 6:25-26).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to \u201chostility,\u201d \u201cYe have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you\u201d (Matthew 5:43-44). Impossible with men, but possible with God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to \u201cguilt feelings,\u201d it is strange that conscience and plain old conviction for sin should be reckoned an \u201cenemy.\u201d If there is one thing a Gospel minister, a true minister, longs to see today, it is conviction of sin. But since psychology reckons a sense of sin as only a \u201cguilt feeling,\u201d then conviction, good old Bible conviction, must be fought off as a foe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it is the work of the Holy Spirit to \u201d \u2026 reprove the world of sin \u2026 \u201d (John 16:8), is He then to be resisted in His work of conviction? Must the Holy Spirit then be treated as an \u201cenemy\u201d of the sickroom? Once the convicted person has confessed and forsaken his sin, then there is the all-sufficient remedy, \u201d \u2026 the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin\u201d (1 John 1 :7). Thereafter, thank God, \u201cguilt feelings\u201d need to be no more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to \u201cboredom,\u201d God\u2019s mercies \u201d \u2026 are new every morning \u2026 \u201d (Lamentations 3:23). Those who meditate day and night in God\u2019s Word are only \u201cbored\u201d with blessing and joy. Blessed boredom!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to \u201cdespair,\u201d the man without Christ may well despair, being without God, without Christ, and without hope. There is no use saying, \u201d \u2026 Peace, peace \u2026 \u201d to despairing souls, \u201d \u2026 when there is no peace\u201d (Jeremiah 8:11); and \u201cThere is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked\u201d (Isaiah 57:21). The only foundation for peace is the blood of Christ, \u201d \u2026 having made peace through the blood of his cross \u2026 \u201d (Colossians 1 :20).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to \u201cloneliness\u201d \u2013 how lonely is the godless man! If even Christians need to be visited in their affliction, how forsaken and lonely must be the lost! But to all Christian persons comes the sweet promise, \u201d \u2026 I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee\u201d (Hebrews 13 :5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether the enemies of the sickroom be \u201cseven\u201d or \u201cseventy times seven,\u201d Christ can overcome them all!<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A retired minister doing hospital work, says, \u201cThe chaplains try to combat the seven enemies of the sickroom \u2013 pain, anxiety, hostility, guilt feelings, boredom, despair, and loneliness.\u201d How wonderfully the Saviour, by His presence, power, and grace, can meet each of these problems. As to \u201cpain\u201d or any other thorn in the flesh, Christ … Continue reading Sickroom Enemies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa5oei-CH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2400,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions\/2400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}