“Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins” (Psalms 25:18)

Pain is one of the many ways God gets our attention. Because “no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it” (Ephesians 5:27), when someone gets sick, his first thought is, “how can I be healed?”. But for saints, the next thought is perhaps God caused or allowed the sickness to get the saint to repent of sin. “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him … And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:14-15). 

 But there’s a deeper lesson for saints in this Scripture. Saints care more about sickness of the soul than sickness of the body. Yes, they’re often connected, and physical sickness often causes the saint to deal with spiritual sickness, but there’s no contest as to which is more important. 

 So when you go to the Lord with afflictions and pains along with sins, do as David did. Place the sins in the primary position of your prayers and efforts. David asks God to look upon his affliction and pain, but his next request is infinitely more important: "Forgive all my sins". Lesser saints would have reversed the requests this way: "Remove my affliction and my pain, and look at my sins". But David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). His heart was, "Lord, I won’t tell you whether or not I deserve, or if it’s best for me to be afflicted and in pain. I know “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28), so I leave my afflictions and pain in Your hands. I just ask You to look at them, and Your will be done. But, as for my sins, I can’t take the burden any longer. Please, I beg of You, forgive all my sins!".