Day 21: How Faith Comes

During my service with the British army in World War II, I lay sick with a chronic skin infection in a military hospital in Egypt. The doctors did not have the means to cure me. I said to myself, “I know that if I had faith, God would heal me.” Then I always added, “But I don’t have faith.”

One day, I read Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The source of faith – the Word of God - was right there in my hands. I determined read the Bible right through, underlining in blue every verse that dealt with healing, physical strength, and long life. I was surprised at how often I needed to use my blue pencil. After about two months, I reached the book of Proverbs and read:

“My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” (Proverbs 4:20–22 KJV)

As I was underlining these words, their meaning began to open up to me. “My son.” It was my Father, God, speaking directly to me, His child. God was telling me what His “words” and His “sayings” could be to me—“health to all [my] flesh.” How could God promise me more for my physical body than that?

I noticed there was an alternative translation for “health.” It was “medicine.” At my own request, all my medication was suspended. Then I began to take God’s Word as my medicine. The army transferred me from Egypt to the Sudan, where temperatures reach as high as 127 degrees. Excessive heat always aggravated my skin condition. Everything in my circumstances was opposed to my healing. Gradually, however, I realized that the fulfillment of God’s promises does not depend on external circumstances, but solely on meeting His conditions. After each main meal, I would bow my head over my open Bible and say, “Lord, You have promised that these words of Yours will be medicine to all my flesh. I’m taking them as my medicine now—in the name of Jesus!” No sudden or dramatic change took place. I experienced nothing that I could describe as a miracle. But after I had been in the Sudan for about three months, I discovered that my medicine had made good its claims. I was perfectly well. I had actually received “health to all [my] flesh” (Proverbs 4:22 KJV).