The Best Way to Keep Walking with God Through Chronic Illness
Need encouragement for walking with God through chronic illness? It’s a tough subject to navigate between diagnosis and healing, but Tiffany Montgomery shares what to do. From Day 2 of our #GodlyAdventure.
Walking with God sounds so simple, easy in fact. And it is when life is good and everything is going well. But Trusting God and continuing to walk with Him when life is hard – or when you are diagnosed with an incurable disease – is anything but easy. Walking with God through sickness requires a level of trust I had not expected.
Hi, my name is Tiffany Montgomery and I have an autoimmune disease. There’s no cure for it, the best doctors can do is treat the symptoms and monitor the body systems it attacks.
I am now dealing with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis or Chronic Illness
My prayers range from “God please heal me” to “What is your plan with this illness in my life God?” “’Why did you let this illness into my life? You could have stopped it – said not this one – but You didn’t.” I even whine at Him a bit with “Why are there incurable diseases in this world at all?”
There is fear in my heart about the unknown in my future now. My children are so small and I want to enjoy raising them– watching them start their own family. I worry I will miss important parts of it now because I am sick and in pain so often.
RELATED: Learn how to pray for healing with God’s Healing Power Toolkit
How can I trust God? Can I continue walking with God through Chronic Illness?
I feel the temptation to walk away from Him whisper in my ear. After all, He could have healed me and yet He chose not to. Then I am reminded of Paul and Job and Moses – even Jesus Christ Himself.
These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world. John 16:33 NASB
The life of a Christian is not free of pain and suffering. In fact, we are repeatedly told it will be hard and then given example after example of how God can use the hard parts to be glorified and win the lost world to Himself.
Moving from Questioning God to Trusting God
Have you been walking with God long?
I met Him when I was 5 years old and immediately fell in love with His unconditional love. That supernatural love that loved me first, made a way for our relationship, then sought me out to purchase me with His blood… it is an extravagant love.
God’s love has been wrapped around the good, bad and the ugly parts of my life.
- Through abuse and neglect.
- PTSD as a youth.
- Bad relationship after bad relationship – leading to tremendous loss.
- In the darkest hours – when I thought the world would be better off without me.
- Years of depression and anxiety.
He caught me time after time.
Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6 NASB
Trusting God has been a slow process. It started with a child’s prayer and has matured as I’ve seen He won’t let me go or let me fall.
Trusting God has been a slow process. It started with a child's prayer and has matured as I've seen He won't let me go or let me fall.Have you experienced that kind of extravagant love?
About 15 years ago God began to teach me what it meant to surrender my life fully to Him. I was saved, but I had been keeping parts of my life apart from Him. You see I was not fully trusting Him.
I was angry at Him for allowing the abuse and pain that seemed to plague my life. He could have stopped it, said no Satan – not today – not this child. But He allowed it and I feared He would allow more to come. So I justified compartmentalizing our relationship.
Do you trust God with every part of your life?
Now I start the day thanking Him for the blessing of a new day and handing my life over – freshly surrendered – to Him to do whatever He wants. “Your Will be Done in my life Lord.”
Surrender and Trust go hand in hand when Walking with God
What I’ve learned over a decade of surrender to God… When I hold onto parts of my life -not surrendered to God – I miss blessings from Him. Blessings come in unexpected packages when you surrender everything to God.
- Surprising friendships
- Healed and restored relationships
- A strengthened Marriage
- Freedom from the resentment and bitterness that held me captive from years of refusing to Forgive
- The ability to give and bless others
- Wisdom to mentor others
- A ministry orchestrated by God to encourage women
Walking with God through Chronic Illness is not easy
I wish there was a handbook to surviving and thriving in life with a Chronic Illness. Expect this. Avoid that. Embrace this. Move here. Try that. But there are so many illnesses in our world and they affect us all differently.
There are days I don’t have the energy to get out of bed. Some days start well and by midday, I am in tears from the pain. My ability to focus has changed. There are limits on what I can accomplish now that were never there before.
Even my quiet time has had to change.
But I feel like God was preparing me for it all along. Every hardship added a piece to my Spiritual Armor. Each pain – that God never left me through – built my faith and ability to Trust Him.
I can continue walking with God through Chronic illness because He has walked with me through everything.
Has God been faithful in your life? I am reminded of that old hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” As He has been, He forever will be.
We can trust Him – even through Chronic Illness. He’ll be there with us even on the worst days. He won’t let go of our hand when we are crying out in pain.
Do you struggle to Trust God when life gets hard? Do you have a Chronic Illness as well? I would love to pray for you as you continue walking with God. Would you drop a comment below so I can add you to my prayer list?
Jesus Girl | Wife of Bud | Homeschooling Mom | Owner & Writer at HopeJoyInChrist.com | Rising Entrepreneur | Louisville KY
Tiffany is a Jesus Girl with a passion to Encourage and Equip Wives and Moms through practical Biblical Discipleship. She loves to unite with biblically minded women to grow their Christian Marriages inside her growing Facebook Community!
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Hello,
Thank you so much for your courage in sharing your testimony and speaking on this topic. Invisible illnesses are very hard to live with! I didn’t even know what fibromyalgia is, but I have it! On a rollacoaster ride with God atm. That makes so much sense, I do trust him in certain areas and some not! Does this just change over time? Please can you pray that out from this illness I would learn to live for God alone and know his peace what ever the circumstance!! Love, Alexandra
I’m so sorry I am just now seeing this, Alexandra but I am praying over you today. Yes, the issue of trust does change over time. When we choose to lean into HIM through it and right the desire to run away. Praying you have done just that.
Thank you! I have been struggling to find the energy and commitment to study God’s word like I used to through my pain. And after passing out in Sunday school from it last week I was feeling so frustrated and worried. I was glad to stumble on this post 🙂
Sickness makes it hard to choose to keep gonig to church… like maybe we are a burden or a distraction. I pray you are fighting through that and still going!
I feel I’m in the same situation as Ashley – struggling to find the energy and commitment. It’s just hard to get things done when you don’t feel well. Thanks for the post!
DD, it is hard. There is a new level of normal we have to accept and walking. Praying over you today.
Hi, I’m 17 and facing a chronic illness of my own amongst other things… I don’t want to feel betrayed by God anymore because I know that anger is standing in the way of better things, but I wish there was a step by step guide for learning how to heal and trust .. knowing others have felt how I feel and grown through it into a deep and trusting relationship with God is some of the only hope I have right now. Thank you for sharing your heart…
Thank you for your honestly, Jessica. Praying today finds you in a place of leaning into God through it.
Thank you for sharing your journey. I have 3 chronic illnesses and struggle to trust God consistently. I need to know how to surrender to God. Please pray that I will fully surrender.
I am standing with you in that prayer, Berentha.
Hi. I have been struggling with chronic pain for 20 year. I have trigeminal neuralgia which is said to be the most excruciating pain known to mankind. I need all the prayers for healing I can get. God bless you.
Sorry to just have seen this, Racquel. What a difficult journey you are walking with God. Praying right now for peace and rest from all the struggling.
Thank you for posting this. I am walking through a journey trying to figure out what “invisible” illness I have. Tremors, insomnia, and learning to trust God even more than I ever had to before. This brings much needed encouragement.
Hi, I love this article. I too struggle with an incurable condition and struggle with unconditional love of God but I think I’m getting better.
Thank you for your insight and prayers.
You folks can talk all about how chronic illness can teach you or help you understand or bring you closer to God .. if it does for you cool ….
I submit this . You get beaten enough or raped , mistreated . After a time it’s just human nature to no like the guy that inflicts pain upon you ( acts of god . Illness created and distributed by God . ) It’s just common sense . Why would you want to go around your dad if he hit you in the mouth every time you see him. If … IF God is using chronic illness to try to teach or get love or for you to get closer to Him …. I would suggest He goes back and rewrites or rereads lessons on basic human behavior . When you get tortured . Most often you don’t like the guy doing it and you damn sure don’t want him spending the night with you in your house
Agreed, Duncan. Also, God doesn’t give sickness (see this post: https://kellyrbaker.com/gods-healing-power-for-you/ ) but is the One who gives good gifts (Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. James 1:17 NASB). However, when people say God uses something bad, it’s that He is able to “use” the circumstance (even when He’s not the author of it) to grow spiritually. It’s the same way that we as humans can learn from an experience and gain wisdom from it. For example, in my life I’ve made foolish choices and learned from the consequences. As I did that, I cried out to God, and He used those foolish choices to help me gain a heart of wisdom. So now, I’ve learned not to make those foolish choices again. In the case of sickness or abuse, we can through that go to God as our Comforter and Healer. People who paint God as cruel…well, they have a mistaken viewpoint of God. Jesus in the New Testament is the picture of God in the New Covenant. And we saw Jesus love and only love.