Where does the Bible tell us sickness is good?

Who says sickness is to our benefit? There are Christians who think this, that we ought to be grateful for our afflictions and find in them lessons God is teaching us .
In the writings of the Rev JR Miller which overall I like, yet I do not agree with him that sicknesses are blessings.

My major argument is that Jesus Christ spent a huge amount of time healing every kind of sickness. He wanted us to have life abundantly. How can anyone who is in pain have that?

Sickness itself is the result of sin, so in this regard it is not good. But God does use sickness at times to chasten His own. And while the sickness itself may not be good, the results of the chastening can be a source of great benefit. This doesn't make sickness good, but it does fit well with God working all things for the good for those in Christ.
As an aside, God does things according to His ways. And He's not going to alter His ways for us. One of the ways He accomplishes things to His glory is to make us more than conquerors. This means He allows us to get into difficult situations and then uses the thing that was designed to weaken and destroy us to strengthen and profit us.

God tells us in Romans 8:28:

”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.“

God can use sicknesses for His good purpose but that is distinctly different from claiming that sickness is a blessing in itself.

"My Grace is sufficient for you'

Paul wasn't "healed" of his affliction. He gave the reason that God didn't want him to think of himself as all that and a bag of chips.

So his affliction was for his benefit.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

First of all this is a very difficult and personal topic which doesn't have a clear answer.
As others have mentioned, yes, this is a way for God to call you but what doesn't make a lot of sense to me is when children get sick.
That is very difficult for me to understand.
Because as an adult you'd have to internalize, rationalize and process a LOT of things when you get sick before you get to some sort of peace inside. Because nobody understands suffering until you get suffering. Then when you get it, your first reaction is anger, denial and disbelief. Peace is the last word in the vocabulary.
But when you do get peace it means that you had growth.
However a child can't do any of that, so i'm not sure why a child would have to get sick.

In regards to Jesus healing the sick, that was a way for Him to show that He had control of nature and the laws of nature by doing these miracles.
But, these miracles continue to this day after prayer and being in sacred holy places. It doesn't always work, which is another mystery, but when it does it defies all the experts and rational thought and it's considered A Miracle.
So some people are healed and others are not.
Bottom line is that it's a difficult subject and hopefully you arrive at peace which is also what Paul had when he said that he was content with everything and whether he lives or dies, it's for The Lord.

John 9:1-3
9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

I don't know that its good as much as I know God works all things for our good. What I am sure of is that this momentary affliction is light in comparison to the eternal glory that we wait, as patiently as we can, for.

Treasures in Jars of Clay
…16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal glory that is far beyond comparison. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.… (2Corinthians4)

Fair enough. However, I will not be thankful for pain and sickness nor regard them as a blessing. Jesus didn't.

Romans 8:28

Paul did. For when he was weak, God was strong.
Few people come to the place where God's glory means more to themselves than what they believe is in their best interest. Few people also experience the power of God in their lives in transformational ways. It would be a shame to miss out on God's best. But I do understand your sentiment.

I take it Paul was glad of strength from God, as am I. I always pray and thank God for helping and healing me. Yet I am just not going to ever thank God for an illness or disease.

I have read of some people who do that, actually rejoicing in a painful condition that they feel brings them closer to God. I reckon that is misguided.

Yet we are to rejoice always and pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances...


1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I remember when I was younger, there was this guy at my old church who was a doctor who was already in his own practice (he specialized in back problems) and he was engaged to a girl who was working on her masters degree and going to be a psychiatrist. So everyone saw them as this attractive power couple - smart, both good-looking, AND godly. They got married. The next you thing you know something happened to him - something wrong with his leg bones. He ended up in a wheel chair and lost his ability to walk!!! I had moved away and lost track, so I don't know what happened after that. I knew that before I moved away, that he said that this condition humbled him very much. I don't know if he could have continue in his practice - but he can still diagnose can't he? And I think it humbled the girl too because I think she was very proud of them as doctor and psychiatrist and being a power couple that everybody held in high esteem. This condition also cut into their salaries too.

I didn't think it was something to gloat over though. What this showed me was that God loved them so much that He destroyed their pride so that they wouldn't continue in that sin. The illness/disorder made them both depend on God and kind of cut them down in the eyes of everyone. I mean, everybody and I held them in high esteem before that but after that, I got really cautious about ever becoming prideful. I didn't want to end up like them.


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Hi Mary, it's true that being sick, temporarily or chronically, is never fun, at all That said, I believe that God always causes the things that we suffer through to be a blessing to us in some way (as others have already mentioned).

I don't have time to post my thoughts about all of this right now, but you may be interested in the short article that is found at the end of the link below (actually, it's an article and a video, so you can watch, listen, read, or do all three if you'd like to ). And this article includes a short testimony at the end which you may find to be a blessing as well .. and links to other, similar articles at the bottom too.

~Why does God allow sickness? | GotQuestions.org

I hope to return soon and give you some of my personal thoughts about this topic (Dv).

God bless you!!

~Deuteronomy

Sickness gets you out of work for the day.

What a wonderful thing sickness is.

Sickness is not a Blessing ---sickness and disease is a curse ------

Not one mention of the body being sick here in the Blessings that Jesus brought back to all who receive Him ----

Blessings from the Lord
28 Carefully obey the Lord your God, and faithfully follow all his commands that I’m giving you today. If you do, the Lord your God will place you high above all the other nations in the world.

2 These are all the blessings that will come to you and stay close to you because you obey the Lord your God:

3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

4 You will be blessed. You will have children. Your land will have crops. Your animals will have offspring. Your cattle will have calves, and your flocks will have lambs and kids.

5 The grain you harvest and the bread you bake will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come and blessed when you go.

7 The Lord will defeat your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction but run away from you in seven directions.

8 The Lord will bless your barns and everything you do. The Lord your God will bless you in the land that he is giving you.

9 You will be the Lord’s holy people, as he promised you with an oath. He will do this if you obey the commands of the Lord your God and follow his directions.

10 Then all the people in the world will see that you are the Lord’s people, and they will be afraid of you.

11 The Lord will give you plenty of blessings: You will have many children. Your animals will have many offspring. Your soil will produce many crops in the land the Lord will give you, as he swore to your ancestors.

12 The Lord will open the heavens, his rich storehouse, for you. He will send rain on your land at the right time and bless everything you do. You will be able to make loans to many nations but won’t need to borrow from any.

13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. You will always be at the top, never at the bottom, if you faithfully obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.

14 Do everything I’m commanding you today. Never worship other gods or serve them.

These are the curses ----sickness and disease and more come under these curses -----

Read all for yourselves --I just posted some verses

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 28&version=GW

So are you Blessed or Cursed -----pick your side
----
Curses from the Lord
15 Obey the Lord your God, and faithfully follow all his commands and laws that I am giving you today. If you don’t, all these curses will come to you and stay close to you:

16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

17 The grain you harvest and the bread you bake will be cursed.

18 You will be cursed. You will have few children. Your land will have few crops. Your cattle will be cursed with few calves, and your flocks will have few lambs and kids.

19 You will be cursed when you come and cursed when you go.

20 The Lord will send you curses, panic, and frustration in everything you do until you’re destroyed and quickly disappear for the evil you will do by abandoning the Lord.

21 The Lord will send one plague after another on you until he wipes you out of the land you’re about to enter and take possession of.

22 The Lord will strike you with disease, fever, and inflammation; heat waves,[a] drought,[b] scorching winds,[c] and ruined crops. They will pursue you until you die.

27 The Lord will strike you with the same boils that plagued the Egyptians. He will strike you with hemorrhoids,[d] sores,[e] and itching that won’t go away.

28 The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic.

29 You will grope in broad daylight as blind people grope in their blindness. You won’t be successful in anything you do.[f] As long as you live, you will be oppressed and robbed with no one to rescue you.

34 The things you see will drive you mad.

35 The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with severe boils that can’t be cured. The boils will cover your whole body from the soles of your feet to the top of your head

59 If so, the Lord will strike you and your descendants with unimaginable plagues. They will be terrible and continuing plagues and severe and lingering diseases.

60 He will again bring all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.

61 The Lord will also bring you every kind of sickness and plague not written in this Book of Teachings. They will continue until you’re dead.

There the Lord will give you an unsettled mind, failing eyesight, and despair.

66 Your life will always be hanging by a thread. You will live in terror day and night. You will never feel sure of your life.

Do you believe Scripture ----or NOT =====

Matthew 8:16-17 The Message (MSG)

That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill.
He fulfilled Isaiah's well-known revelation: He took our illnesses, He carried our diseases.

----Jesus took all sickness and disease from all who receive Him ----we are healed ===past tense

Sozo” is the Greek word for salvation, yet its root meaning goes beyond just the forgiveness of sins. According to Strong's Concordance,

Sozo also carries the idea of being physically healed of diseases and being delivered from your enemy. In the spiritual sense, that enemy is the devil and his demons.

You either believe it or you don't-----you either believe all scripture or you believe none of it ------you cannot believe Some Scripture and disregard other Scripture -----all scripture it says is God breathed and truth ------

Good question. I believe that God works all things together for our good. Recently, I had an accident that prevents me from helping my wife with her regular treatment for lymphoma. We have now have a visiting helper to take my place. She is a born again believer who loves Jesus. We've had good fellowship and we've been able to help her with some issues that she's facing.

About 3 years ago, I was in hospital with pancreatitis. I was able to witness to some of the staff, including a doctor who was raised in a Christian home but who did not believe. My now wife prayed for me, out loud, while the doctor was there. The doctor told me that she saw my wife's prayer answered to the letter.

I would not wish the illness on my worst enemy. However, I also knew the peace of Christ that passes understanding in the midst of that "storm". In this world, we have tribulation. It takes many forms. Sometimes God permits us to suffer so that we can prove Him, His mercy and His grace. If we respond correctly, God will effect a change in our hearts for the better. Sometimes it takes an earthly trial to bring about a spiritual blessing.