I have been ill for years now and my faith is worn thin. How do I keep believing God is good when my body keeps failing me?

“My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”

Asaph wrote this psalm after nearly losing his faith over the sheer unfairness of life. He admits that his flesh and his heart fail, present tense, not resolved. What he found on the far side of that admission was not an explanation but a person he could still hold onto. For someone whose body has become unreliable, this is a song written by a man who stopped pretending he was fine.

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Paul begged three times for a physical affliction to be taken away, and it stayed. He never names what it was, which means every reader living with a chronic condition can stand in his place. He does not call it a blessing in disguise or a gift. He calls it a thorn, and then says he found grace inside it rather than instead of it.