Question:
What does God require of those who do not have health and strength of body? Are they excused from the responsibility of doing God’s work?
Answer:
Praise God! God is love! We really do not understand love. Consequently, we do not always know how to relate to it, because we do not know what love expects of us. The best way to find that out is to study the Bible and the inspired writings that the Lord has given us.
We human beings sometimes go by feelings, thinking it is love when it is only emotional excitement. God has created emotions in us for our joy and happiness, but He also gave us a mind and a heart, which go deeper than emotions. He bids us to reason things out and decide what is best in each situation. Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now and let us reason together.” It is not reasonable to expect a handicapped person to do what a strong, healthy individual can do.
God is not in need of our help. We are in need of the service that we can do to gain a character that will fit us for the heavenly society. Some individuals need to learn patience by being handicapped, some by responsibility, and some by illness and by whatever the Lord sees that is needed. God is more interested in our characters than in what we do, because our characters are all that we can take to heaven.
There are several texts that spell out what the Lord expects of us as individuals. “He hath showed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8. “For if there be first a willing mind, [it is] accepted according to that a man hath, [and] not according to that he hath not.” 11 Corinthians 8:12.
Ellen White also gives counsel on this subject:
“Now when you can no longer be active, and infirmities press upon you, all that God requires of you is to trust Him. Commit the keeping of your soul to Him as unto a faithful Creator. His mercies are sure, His covenant is everlasting. Happy is the man whose hope is in the Lord his God, who keepeth truth forever. Let your mind grasp the promises and hold to them. If you cannot call to mind readily the rich assurance contained in the precious promises, listen to them from the lips of another. What fullness, what love and assurance are found in these words from the lips of God Himself, proclaiming His Love, His pity and interest in the children of His care:
“ ‘The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin’ (Exodus 34:6, 7).” Reflecting Christ, 281.
But everyone must witness for God in some way—maybe only by being patient with difficulty, maybe only by a smile during pain and distress, or maybe with words of encouragement. None of us are released from the responsibility of reflecting the character of Christ in some way.