Is Sickness From The Devil Or From God?
Do you think sickness is of the devil or from God? I have heard it preached that when we are sick, we should thank God for the sickness because James 1:1-2.
First of all, nothing can come into our life unless God allows it. Everybody has to admit that. God has to at least allow something to happen. Now, He may not be the active agent in something, so we wouldn’t technically say that God did it. But even if God didn’t do it, He allowed it. God is a part of everything. If He has allowed it, then there’s some purpose that God has for allowing it.
Secondly, I can think of a few occasions in Scripture where we learn that Satan was the cause of someone’s illness or infirmity. In Luke 13:10-17, Jesus cast a spirit out of a woman who was bent over, and she was healed. Jesus said that Satan had bound the woman with this infirmity. From this and other Scriptures, we learn that it is within the capability of Satan to afflict someone with a physical infirmity, at least at certain times and occasions. I don’t know if it’s common, but it is at least possible that Satan can be the cause.
We also understand germ theory. We understand contagious diseases. We understand that if my arm were to be hit with a heavy force, it could break. I could explain it by saying that a falling rock broke my arm. It wasn’t that Satan pushed the rock. While we acknowledge that there are times when Satan can be responsible for inflicting upon somebody some kind of physical ailment, the Bible doesn’t put all sickness or infirmity into that category.
So how can you tell the difference? Here is how I have worked through this in my own life. Let’s say that a person is in a terrible crisis, whether physically, spiritually, socially, economically, or whatever it is. People can torture themselves asking, “Did this come from the devil, or did this come from the Lord?” First, stop torturing yourself over that question. Instead, think of it this way: “I don’t know where this came from, but I do know that Satan wants to use this to his advantage, and I know that God wants to use it for His glory.” Even without knowing exactly where it came from, carefully consider that God wants to use it for His glory and Satan wants to use it for his advantage. With God’s help, you can decide to do everything in your power to make it something which honors God and brings Him glory.
That’s how I would understand it. As far as thanking God for sickness, we just need wisdom from God. Sometimes God appoints us to be delivered from our trials. At other times, God’s appointment is for us to be delivered in our trial. There’s a big difference between the two: being delivered from or delivered in? May God give us the wisdom to know which one He wants to do in our circumstance.