The Children For Christ by Andrew Murray

In His Word He left among the heritage of the exceeding great and
precious promises which are the riches of His Church, the assurance
that the prayer of faith would save the sick, because the prayer of a
righteous man avails much. He has a thousand times over by His Spirit
led His children, applying the promise of an answer to believing prayer,
the promise of His doing whatsoever we will if we abide in Him, to
believe and receive the healing of a sick child. His great desire in
sickness is to educate us into that simple, child-like faith, which, while
it cannot give account of its assurance to reason, yet through the Holy
Spirit has the assurance that its petition is granted, that it has what it
asks. Let us but see that the lesson of the chastisement has been
accepted, that the sin, or the want of entire harmony of our life with
God’s will, has been confessed and pardoned, has been cast out and
conquered; let us claim the life of the beloved sick one for God’s glory in
him and in us as parents: the word of Jesus can come to us as real as to
the nobleman: Your son lives.
And we shall learn how sickness is to become a blessing. The Lord Jesus
used it as a means of drawing to Himself; when it had done this He took
it away, that the healing might bind to Himself. When the sickness had
done its work, the healing perfected what had been begun. The sickness
had brought the nobleman to Jesus in hope and expectancy; the healing
left him a confirmed believer, with his household. There is a very
prevalent opinion that sickness is better than health for true piety; in
the life of Christ and in His work we see no token of this. Health
obtained direct from Jesus in the prayer of faith, health received
consciously as a gift of redeeming love, is one of the most wonderful
spiritual blessings: a bearing in the body the mark of the hand of Jesus.
Let each parent, whom our Lord leads into this school of sickness,
realize this fully, that health, indeed asked and received in faith, may be
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