Christian, My Sanctification in a Hospital bed.

In 1999 I went into crisis. I was experiencing a mental illness for the first time in my life and I felt like I was dying. I had been exposed to mental illness before with family, but this was happening to me and my pride was being deeply cut down. I write about my story in a book called "Hearts Linked by Courage" by the Canadian Mental Health Association available in Canada, so I don't want to go into to many details here that I talked about in my story. Some time ago I read a story of a christian who was very sick, and wondering how God would use them now that they were confined to a hospital bed. The conclusion was that in that very bed that they were put by God, she still had a mind and she still had the holy spirit. How could she work out her sanctification and salvation, (Philippians 2:12 NIV) "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Surely God still had a plan for her life, but what could that be now being confined to a hospital bed?

Back to my story, I too spent time in a hospital bed and I have been spending a lot of time confined by my illness. How does God's sanctification plan apply to those people like me, who are disabled? We still have a mind and we can use that mind to meditate and think about the things of God. If our bodies are diseased God still can work in our lives, it's just not the same way he works in other peoples lives! God uses our hospital bed as a way to make us holy. If all we are left with is our thoughts, we can fight the devil and the devils that try to take us away from God. God is still present with us even if we cannot leave our beds, or our rooms. The battle is fought on the hospital bed because we still have faith, and we can still try to take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV) "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

It is a very different fight when we are on our hospital bed, when we feel that there is no comfort and nothing can help us is when the light breaks through. We realize that we still have a soul that is saved, and we realize that all our other faculties work. We needn't worry who is going to win the battle because God fights with us. When we are left to fight alone, we can hear the voice of God in our spirits and be uplifted by our truth and by our faith. This is Mike.

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