From the Orthodox blogosphere...
If some illness befalls you, first of all thank God for it, for the Lord God sends every illness for our salvation. Illnesses have always been one of the Lord God’s most powerful motivators towards salvation.
Without illness, many people would not have come to love God, would never have begun to pay less attention to the temporal, and would never have come to so highly value the eternal, as they do now.
Without illness many people would not refrain from vices, as they do now; by means of illness, the Lord God disposes them by force, so to speak, to leave sin and lead a life pleasing to Him.
Without illness, many people would become a cause of tears for a countless number of people or a most disastrous plague for human souls; but by means of prolonged or continual illness the All-good God denies them the opportunity to leave their houses and cause injury to others.
By means of illness, He has cut them off from contact with their neighbors; they now are harmless to their neighbors and less harmful to themselves.
So, thank the Lord God that He is not depriving you of His grace and is using one of His most powerful tools in the cause of your salvation.
from the book: How to Live a Holy Life by Met. Gregory of St Petersburg (1784-1860)
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