Getting the Prescription Filled

Seventeen years ago, my fingers hurt so much that I couldn’t button my shirt or pick up my grandbabies. A rheumatologist diagnosed it as osteoarthritis, a chronic disease that, she said, could only be maintained (not healed) via drugs. She prescribed Vioxx. My husband said to me as we drove home, “Now we know the name of the symptoms, and since we know THE NAME that is above ALL names, the name, osteoarthritis, must bow to the name of Jesus. We pray for wisdom and will believe God guides us in what to do, not to just ease the pain, but for your complete healing.” He prayed those words from God's Word (God's remedy book for so much that ails us) in Philippians 2:9. We just didn't have a peace about having that prescription for Vioxx to be filled, and, it’s a good thing because a couple of years later Vioxx was taken off the market because over 60,000 patients died from taking it. (BTW, God's wisdom led us to natural supplements and the pain was gone within 90 days. All glory to God!)

I’m not advocating that we shouldn’t take medicine. Combining our faith in the healing power of God with the wisdom of the medical field can be God's way for our healing to come. When we are really sick, and beyond our faith, we may need to go to a doctor for help. If he finds an infection, he'll prescribe a remedy and write a prescription for us. He knows and expects the medicine to help us get better. He wants to help us get over the issue so we take it, then wait for it to work.

Now, think about how much God wants us to apply His Word to, not just healing our bodies, but restoring our souls and having an entire life of His abundance and success. We talk about what God’s Word says. We think about His Word. But often we don't actually “take it” and act on what it says. God, our Great Physician, has prescribed what we need in His Word. The fact is taking His prescription (or not) to love, forgive, trust, and hope (His characteristics) will determine how long we wait for success.

If we don’t know where to start, we can start with the simplest of all “prescriptions" for success. It is God’s BIG ONE – a commandment, which is sometimes difficult to swallow, but the single most important one for a life of blessing and abundance. It’s simple to remember because it basically boils down to one word: love. This one word contains the essence of all the other commandments we’ve ever been given. It says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). That’s the prescribed medicine we need to take daily……religiously.

Learning to wait well with patience involves learning how to put into practice the regularity of living as a child of God. It means putting into practice those things we already know: • Loving
• Forgiving • Believing • Doing what God says to do.

Heavenly Father, we want to love as You love, forgive like You forgive and honor You with our hearts in every way. Use us as a testimony of grace, kindness, and love to those around us. I pray for a double portion of favor and blessing in our lives! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.