Bible verses about
Illness / Sickness
We live in a world in which every atom is tainted by sin. Illness, disease, pain, and death are the inevitable result of living on a fallen planet. No one escapes unscathed.
“In this world, you will have trouble,” Jesus told His friends, “but cheer up! I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33). Christ has overcome every symptom of sin. Every heartache, every sickness, every damaged body or mind can be placed in His capable, loving hands. Our blessed hope in Jesus promises that the trouble we endure here is only temporary, yet we are destined for eternity!
My belief in Jesus and my faith give me the victory over anything the world throws at me
1 John 5:4-5
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Everyone has their own plague and their own sorrow, but God hears their prayers and knows their hearts
2 Chronicles 6:28-31
If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who will each know his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread out his hands toward this house; then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men) that they may fear you, to walk in your ways, so long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
Jesus can heal every disease and illness
Matthew 4:23
Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.
Some diseases are a direct result of deliberate disobedience to God
2 Chronicles 21:12-15, 18-19
A letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, “the LORD, the God of David your father, says, ‘Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the prostitute like Ahab’s house did, and also have slain your brothers of your father’s house, who were better than yourself, behold, the LORD will strike your people with a great plague, including your children, your wives, and all your possessions; and you will have great sickness with a disease of your bowels, until your bowels fall out by reason of the sickness, day by day.’”
The insistent prayer of believers on behalf of the sick is powerful and effective
James 5:14-16
Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
Hoarding wealth cannot keep sickness away
Ecclesiastes 5:13-17
There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm. Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand. As he came out of his mother’s womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind? All his days he also eats in darkness, he is frustrated, and has sickness and wrath.
The Lord will sustain me when I am ill
Psalm 41:2-4, 7-8
The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies. The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness. I said, “O LORD, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against you.” All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me. “An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”
Sometimes misery is so great that good, righteous people give up hope
Job 7:3-6
So I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
Jesus came to heal the sickness of sin
Mark 2:17
When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Illness affects everyone, even God's prophets and servants
2 Kings 13:14
Now Elisha became sick with the illness of which he died; and Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him, and said, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”
