Thoughts From a Toothache

I have been silent because I have been suffering from a really painful toothache that I suspect is caused by the last wisdom tooth on the lower-right row of teeth.

Painkillers have been my best friend, and sleep has not come easily at all. In fact, I haven’t had a meal nor any sleep till last night when the ache finally became more of an irritating throb.

I’m feeling much much better this morning and, with praise to God, the dentist (who is a friend of my wife) has been kind enough to move my appointment to first-thing Monday morning from the initial mid-afternoon session. Hopefully the treatment will see the tooth extracted and the problem fixed from then on.

You know how it’s funny that the breakdown of one of the key components of your organs for food intake can so throw your life into disarray and leave you very much weakened.

I got to thinking that in a way the toothache is like a lack of faith. Without the function of that tooth because of its sorry state, I could not ingest food and therefore be nourished. Without faith, it is impossible to be nourished by our spiritual food, the Word of God.

In fact, the Bible says that it is impossible to please God without faith!

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

Moreover, the tooth is an organ that one cannot truly treat personally, you need someone with the expertise, a dentist, to help fix it. It is internal, within your body not alike, say a cut or a rash which can easily be seen and possibly treated with bandages and cream.

Just as faith is a gift from God and one can only grow in faith in God through His grace. Consider that we cannot do anything by ourselves but only through Him, thus is faith only increased when we abide in Christ Jesus.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

John 15:4

And we abide in Christ Jesus when we live in His Truth, in obedience to His commandments, become true Disciples, and more importantly, are one with Christ Jesus when we deny our old sinful selves and He is in us.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Romans 1:17

Cuts and rashes are like our external good works where we try to live a life by the Law. They might be treated, but cuts might leave a scar and rashes can exhibit themselves again if the bacteria that causes them remains within your blood stream.

In other words, no matter how much you try to live by the Law, akin to fixing your external injuries, you can never be perfect because of the scars.

But faith, given of God, is what we can work for, as Paul said to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Philippians 2:12-13

Finally, just as we need to learn, understand and practise good oral hygiene to keep our teeth in good shape, so must we nourish our faith that is given of God by reading His Word and doing what Christ Jesus commands.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Matthew 7:24-27

Shalom Aleichem.

Photo by Red Betty Black.