• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Anchored in Christ

KevinHalloran.net

  • Home
  • About Me
    • Contact
  • Popular Posts
  • Speaking
  • Resources
    • The Gospel
    • Free Prayer Tools
    • 100+ Book Recommendations for Christians
    • 100+ of the Best Christian Biographies
    • 250+ Free Online Seminary Classes, Courses, Programs, and Book Recommendations
    • Accessible Theology Book Series
  • When Prayer Is a Struggle
  • Videos
  • Español

Kevin / February 26, 2021

5 Ways God Uses Sickness for Good – J.C. Ryle

Perhaps you, like me, have a refreshed sense of God’s sovereignty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While I’m hopeful we have the worst days behind us, I also think the world will never be the same, and other contagions/strands could spread in the future.

In case you needed a reminder of how God can work through hardship, J.C. Ryle shared these five ways God uses sickness for good in the short book Sickness (available here from Matthias Media). This essay is also in his longer work Practical Religion.


(a) Sickness helps to remind men of death. The most live as if they were never going to die. They follow business, or pleasure, or politics, or science, as if earth was their eternal home. They plan and scheme for the future, like the rich fool in the parable, as if they had a long lease of life, and were not tenants at will. A heavy illness sometimes goes far to dispel these delusions. It awakens men from their day-dreams, and reminds them that they have to die as well as to live. Now this I say emphatically is a mighty good.

(b) Sickness helps to make men think seriously of God, and their souls, and the world to come. The most in their days of health can find no time for such thoughts. They dislike them. They put them away. They count them troublesome and disagreeable. Now a severe disease has sometimes a wonderful power of mustering and rallying these thoughts, and bringing them up before the eyes of a man’s soul. Even a wicked king like Benhadad, when sick, could think of Elisha (2Ki 8:8). Even heathen sailors, when death was in sight, were afraid, and “cried every man to his god” (Jonah 1:5). Surely anything that helps to make men think is good.

(c) Sickness helps to soften men’s hearts, and teach them wisdom. The natural heart is as hard as a stone. It can see no good in anything which is not of this life, and no happiness excepting in this world. A long illness sometimes goes far to correct these ideas. It exposes the emptiness and hollowness of what the world calls “good” things, and teaches us to hold them with a loose hand. The man of business finds that money alone is not everything the heart requires. The woman of the world finds that costly apparel, and novel-reading, and the reports of balls and operas, are miserable comforters in a sick room. Surely anything that obliges us to alter our weights and measures of earthly things is a real good.

(d) Sickness helps to level and humble us. We are all naturally proud and high-minded. Few, even of the poorest, are free from the infection. Few are to be found who do not look down on somebody else, and secretly flatter themselves that they are “not as other men.” A sick bed is a mighty tamer of such thoughts as these. It forces on us the mighty truth that we are all poor worms, that we “dwell in houses of clay,” and are “crushed before the moth” (Job 4:19); and that kings and subjects, masters and servants, rich and poor, are all dying creatures, and will soon stand side by side at the Bar of God. In the sight of the coffin and the grave it is not easy to be proud. Surely anything that teaches that lesson is good.

(e) Finally, sickness helps to try men’s religion, of what sort it is. There are not many on earth who have no religion at all. Yet few have a religion that will bear inspection. Most are content with traditions received from their fathers, and can render no reason of the hope that is in them. Now disease is sometimes most useful to a man in exposing the utter worthlessness of his soul’s foundation. It often shows him that he has nothing solid under his feet and nothing firm under his hand. It makes him find out that, although he may have had a form of religion, he has been all his life worshipping “an unknown God” (see Act 17:23). Many a creed looks well on the smooth waters of health, which turns out utterly unsound and useless on the rough waves of the sick bed. The storms of winter often bring out the defects in a man’s dwelling, and sickness often exposes the gracelessness of a man’s soul. Surely anything that makes us find out the real character of our faith is a good.

Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPrint Friendly

Related Posts

  • 10 Ways to Make the Most of Social-Distancing & Quarantine Time10 Ways to Make the Most of Social-Distancing & Quarantine Time
  • Fasting for Christ’s Return in Light of COVID-19Fasting for Christ’s Return in Light of COVID-19
  • Albert Mohler on Our Alien Righteousness in Christ (Life-Changing Sentences)Albert Mohler on Our Alien Righteousness in Christ (Life-Changing Sentences)
  • 15 of the Best Christian Books on Grief, Death, and Suffering15 of the Best Christian Books on Grief, Death, and Suffering
  • 4 Ways to Worship—Not Worry—this Election Season4 Ways to Worship—Not Worry—this Election Season

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Print

Filed Under: Christian Living Tagged With: J.C. Ryle

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Connect

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Now Available in Paperback, Kindle, and Audiobook

Recent Posts

  • When You Fear God Doesn’t Hear Your Prayers
  • Top Links for January 2022
  • God’s Sovereignty Should Fuel Prayer, Not Hinder It
  • The Best of 2022
  • What does “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” mean?
  • Top 10 Books I’ve Read in 2022
  • A Free Worksheet to Organize Your Prayer Life
  • Pray the Bible: A Free Video Course on Prayer
  • Recommended Links for November 2022
  • Book Briefs (Fall 2022)

Blog Sponsors

Blog Categories

Bible & Theology Books & Reviews Christian Living Culture Evangelism Humor Leadership Life Links Marriage & Relationships Ministry Missions Prayer Quotes Resources Social Media & Technology






Footer

About Me

I serve with Open the Bible. I wrote When Prayer Is a Struggle: A Practical Guide for Overcoming Obstacles in Prayer (P&R). Learn more about the book.

Learn More

Let’s Connect!

Follow me on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

Follow me on Instagram

Subscribe to my channel on YouTube

Videos: When Prayer Is a Struggle

FTC Disclosure of Material Connection: I sometimes share affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase through a link, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you to cover blogging expenses.

Copyright © 2023 · Digital Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...
 

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.