Judy was known for her ailments. She spoke of them the way some people spoke of their grandchildren…often, and with pride. Every phone call, every visit, carried a catalogue of symptoms, doctor’s visits, and worst-case scenarios. The words rolled from her mouth with a strange satisfaction, as if misery were the only language she could still speak fluently.
Her daughter, Megan, loved the Lord with all her heart. She believed every Word He had ever spoken, not as distant poetry but as living truth. She had stood in the dark valleys of her own life and chosen, again and again, to lift her voice and say, “The Lord is my healer. The joy of the Lord is my strength.” When her body ached, she worked. When her heart was heavy, she prayed. When fear tried to whisper in her ear, she drowned it out with Scripture.
So when Judy would speak of sickness, Megan would answer gently but firmly, “Mama, stop agreeing with death. Speak life. God’s Word says you’re healed. The Bible says, ‘Let the weak say, I am strong.’” She wasn’t mocking her mother’s pain, she was fighting for her mother’s faith.
But Judy didn’t see it that way. Instead of hearing love, she heard rejection. Instead of hope, she saw accusation. And so she did what she always did when her pity-party wasn’t attended, she turned the table.
“You don’t care about me,” Judy said one day, her voice dripping with hurt. “You didn’t even ask how my appointment went. I could be dying and you wouldn’t care.”
Megan’s heart pounded. Not from guilt, but from the burning fire of truth. She knew her mother’s “invisible illness” had become her identity. She had watched her wrap herself in it like a comfort blanket, pushing away anyone who dared to pull it off.
“Mama,” Megan said, “I care about your soul more than your sickness. I refuse to feed the words that are killing you. You want me to ask about your appointment, but what I want is for you to repent for cursing yourself. You want me to pet the pain, but I want you to pick up your mat and walk. The God you say you serve has promised healing, yet you speak as if He’s a liar. That’s not humility that’s unbelief, self pity is pride.”
Judy eyes narrowed, but Megan didn’t stop. Her voice grew stronger, not in anger, but in holy boldness.
“And I’m not just talking to you, Mama I’m talking to every Christian who wears sickness like a badge, who talks death more than they talk Jesus. You’ve forgotten the power of your own tongue. You sit in church and sing about His power to save, but you go home and curse your own life in the mirror. You don’t just age in your body, you age in your spirit, growing brittle with every word of unbelief. And the church has been wrong to coddle you. We’ve been wrong to pet the very thing that’s choking you. We’ve been wrong to hold your hand in the grave you dug with your own words.”
Judy shifted uncomfortably.
“This isn’t cruelty,” Megan said quietly. “This is your warning. ‘Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.’ Choose life, Mama. Speak it until your heart believes it. God will not heal what you keep cursing. And I will not join you in agreeing with death.”
That day, Judy had no clever retort. The truth hung in the air like a sword…sharp, unyielding, and impossible to ignore. And maybe, just maybe, for the first time in years, she began to wonder what might happen if she really did start speaking life.
Fellow believers hear me! We have become too polite with unbelief. We have stroked and petted the heads of those who speak death over themselves, and in doing so, we have agreed with hell. Your comforting added to the chaos. We have been complicit and tolerant in the slow suicide of the tongue.
The Bible says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof” (Proverbs 18:21). “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:37). “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).“Let the weak say, I am strong” (Joel 3:10) “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
So why does the modern church tolerate a faithless tongue? Why do we treat complaining like a small sin when it kept Israel out of the Promised Land? Numbers 14:27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me?” God didn’t see their complaining as harmless. He saw it as rebellion.
Moses nearly begged God to kill him rather than lead a people who grumbled day and night. (Numbers 11:14–15). Jeremiah cursed the day of his birth under the weight of an unrepentant people (Jeremiah 20:14). And yet here we are, pretending that coddling and wooing the faithless will somehow produce faith and false comfort.
No! Faith is a weapon. Faith silences fear. Faith calls those things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:17). Faith shuts the mouths of lions, parts seas, raises the dead, and heals the sick. But a church that will not speak it, live it, and enforce it is a church disarmed.
Yes, doctors can diagnose, but they cannot decree your future. Only God can. And if the first thing out of your mouth after hearing a diagnosis is agreement with the curse instead of the promise, then your faith is in man, not God.
Stop saying you believe the Bible if you won’t open your mouth and declare it over your own life. Stop singing about God’s power on Sunday if you’re going to speak like a corpse on Monday. Stop asking for healing while holding onto the comfort of being sick.
Church, repent for tolerating the tongue of unbelief. Rebuke it and correct it. Confront it. This is not cruelty at all. This is war. And in war, we do not pet the enemy, we strike it down.
Because the day is coming when you will stand before the One whose Word you claimed to believe and YOU will be judged by the very words that left YOUR lips. Speak life now, or answer for death later.
So hear me every word you speak is a seed, and the harvest is coming. You cannot plant death and expect life. You cannot sow unbelief and reap miracles. You cannot curse yourself for years and then demand a blessing overnight. You will block your own blessings and those of others around you by planting the seeds. You don’t even realize.
The day is coming when there will be no more chances to retract what you’ve spoken. No more time to change your confession. No more days to repent for empowering the enemy with your own lips.
Jesus said, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” On that day, the books will be opened and every careless, unbelieving, life-draining word will stand as a witness against you, or for you.
Speak life.
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The Mother Who Loved Her Illness
