The Great Physician

When I was eighteen years old, I suffered the onset of a sickness I can’t explain even today. It started as a sharp sensation running from my fingers throughout my right arm. Then my arm began to jerk, and I fell unconscious. The same alarming attack repeated itself later that evening. Immediately following the first incident, my aunt began screaming, “Please, someone! We need help over here!” Some of our neighbors responded to her cries. They sprinkled water on me to bring me back to consciousness. However, after the second attack, I woke up in a hospital bed.

These two events, along with the resulting sickness, left me feeling very weak. For several months I lost weight, and the pain in my arms was intense. In fact, my arms became so weak that I could hardly wring water out of a towel. I had lost all my strength. In addition, the back of my head felt as if water were running through it and down to the base of my neck.

 My right side was weaker than my left. When walking, I had an abnormal feeling at the back of my knee as if I were limping a little bit. My life dreams faded as I expected either death or paralysis. All this time, though, God’s people were praying for me.

 The following year I was able to study at a college. Though still feeling weak, I determined that with the Lord on my side, my life would go on. I am convinced that the prayers of God’s people, together with the vegetarian diet served at the college, eventually led to my healing. The Lord truly did renew my strength day by day.

Praise be to God because now I am forty-four years old. Those severe and troubling incidents that brought about my sickness have never returned. The strange feeling inside my head is gone, and I can work hard, whether in the house or the garden. Indeed, God is the Great Physician. He heals our diseases.

 Trust Him to renew your strength day by day as He did for me.

Zandile Mankumba.