God’s Way to Healthy Living
God designed our bodies to work! He made them self-healing. If we are sick, there is a reason. We should seek to discover the cause of our infirmity. If we correct whatever caused the illness, our bodies will usually be restored to health.
God designed us in His image (Gen.1:27), three-in-one. According to 1Thess.5:23, we are spirit (God consciousness), soul (mind or self-consciousness), and body (world consciousness). Our bodies are very important! Without our body, our life on
earth ends (2Cor.5:8). God says that our body is the temple of His Holy Spirit (ICor.6:19). The health of our body affects our emotions and brain function. Thus, our health can affect our attitudes, our memory, and our ability to make decisions.
Since spirit, soul, and body make one unified person our spiritual and emotional Health also affects our bodies. When we do things that we know are wrong, the guilt weakens our physical bodies. (Psalm XXXX) On the other hand, the Bible says “the Joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Neh.8:10)If we are unhappy with our circumstances, the sorrow can make us sick (XXX). In reaction to our sorrow, we can also fall into destructive addictions, which can further harm our bodies. Jesus taught that unforgiveness can lead to torment and sickness. (Matt.18:34-35) If we turn to God and receive His forgiveness, He will change us from the inside out. When we are born again (John 3:3?), it is a blessing to our whole being, including our body. The Hebrew word “shalom” means peace, but it also means “wholeness.” (reference). God wants to bless us with peace and wholeness.
God wants us well! Jesus “is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15 NLT) and He healed everyone who came to him, while He was on the earth. Isaiah 53:4 says that Jesus “carried our sicknesses and diseases.” For any who would say
that this is only talking about sin or emotional sickness, God gave us a clear interpretation right in His word. In Matthew 8:16-17, after Jesus had cast out many demons, and “healed all the sick,” we are told that this was in fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4. Jesus carried our sicknesses and diseases, and “by His wounds we are healed.” (Is.53:5) Clearly, healing is a part of the very atonement of Jesus on the cross for us!
I will talk further about this later, but for right now, I hope we can agree on one
thing: God wants us well!
