Prognosis

Every time you turn around there is a new recommended test.
Tests that are scheduled at various ages to insure good health.
Someone, somewhere has determined the when, and the why, and the how.
There are mandates for the proactive care of your health.

The insured will usually go for the recommended tests.
The uninsured will put it off, hoping for good odds that the disease will stay at bay.
It is difficult to determine importance and urgency of some of the recommended tests.
The parameters are always changing and new guidelines are always emerging.

How often we have seen famous people who have lived a long life.
Well into their nineties, they are asked what they did to live that long.
Most will tell of diets and lifestyles that actually make us cringe.
Yet they are still here; they are in relatively good health.

On the flip side, we see athletes who are fit and appear to be in amazing health.
Then one day, they die suddenly.
There is no explanation; it doesn’t add up.
Their life was taken way too soon.

Many diagnostic tests are necessary.
Without them, conditions would go undetected that could have been prevented.
But sometimes a positive test result can be deceiving.
It never takes into account your spiritual health, which is ultimately more important.

Prognosis.

I knew someone who died from lung cancer and never smoked a day in his life.
Someone else had stents put in his heart valves even though he exercised faithfully.
He didn’t have an ounce of fat on him; he ate incredibly healthy foods.
Despite his diligence, there was still a blockage.

Sometimes a good bill of health gives you a false sense of security.
I’m on medicine for cholesterol, so I don’t have to watch my diet.
That doesn’t run in our family.
We cajole and barter and make excuses all because our good report makes us feel safe.

Sometimes, a poor prognosis will set out priorities straight.
It causes us to press into God when we might have dismissed Him in our good health.
It causes us to face our own mortality, when we never gave it a second thought before.
It makes us take stock of our life and our blessings and be thankful.

A false sense of security is a dangerous thing.
A feeling of invincibility takes over when in reality we are all extremely fragile.
We are one breath away from eternity.
People with a poor prognosis tend to grasp that concept a bit better.

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

To keep from becoming conceited.
To boast in weakness.
To be weak in order to be strong.

The paradoxes of a prognosis.

The weak know they need help to be strong.
The sick know they need healing.
Knowing your need is the first step toward spiritual health.

Those that think they are just fine usually aren’t.
Those that rely on themselves or good luck usually hit a brick wall at some point.
We can’t do this life alone.
There is not a turn of the wheel or luck of the draw.

There is God.
God who allows the illness or the infirmity to show us His abundant grace.
God who allows what He hates to accomplish what He loves.
The salvation of souls.

Physical healing is not enough.
Spiritual healing is necessary for eternal life with Him.

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12,13)

The sick need a doctor for healing.
The sinner needs Jesus for salvation.

The little Greek word sozo in the New Testament means three things at once.
It means, to save, to heal and to set free.

When Jesus heals, He heals completely.
Jesus often spoke of someone’s faith making them well.
Wellness in body and soul.
Set free from the ravages of sin.

We must make sure that our good prognosis is not just physical.
It is one thing to be fine physically, but tragic to be dead spiritually.
Physical wellness is a gift, but it is not enough.
The worse prognosis is to be physically well, but spiritually dead.

Complete healing is what Jesus accomplishes when we come to Him in faith.
Sometimes the physical healing will not be realized until we are with Him in heaven.
The spiritual healing is accomplished the moment we believe.
Our life is but a mist here on earth, but eternity is forever.

Come to Jesus and be healed.