STAYING HEALTHY
STAYING HEALTHY
I have never enjoyed taking medication. And I am so grateful for the blessing of divine health. Yet as we advance in age we cannot but wonder how long it will be before we start to depend on medication. Health, they say, is wealth; therefore to stay as healthy as possible till the very end is the pursuit of most people. There is a staggering amount of literature out there about how to live long and how to stay healthy in that longevity. Most of them are centered round a healthy diet and regular exercise. As this article is not about diets and exercise, I will not go into detail about this.
I have come to share something that is accessible to everyone regardless of who we are. It is the Word of God. It is amazingly therapeutic. Many years ago, a friend shared with me of how he had cultivated the habit of reading a chapter of Proverbs (in the scriptures) a day. I was so intrigued by this and I put it to practice immediately. However, I did not keep up the momentum and gradually I stopped the practice completely. But now I know differently. I know that the daily study of the Word of God is absolutely the very best thing that I can ever do for myself and to myself. It is all the therapy we need on this side of eternity.
“My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings, let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4: 20 – 22 KJV
Studying the Word of God is the very best medicine ever. It is health to all our flesh and very truly so because we are told that it is as good as food that we eat. “Jesus answered, “It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 NIV Bread here is symbolic of the food that humans eat or of whatever nourishes us. This comparison between food and the Word of God is to let us know that the Word of God also nourishes just like the food that we eat; therefore the way we would never go without food, we should never go without the Word of God.
Another way of ensuring that we stay healthy is by doing good and trusting God with everything. “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” Proverbs 3:7-8 NIV. When we worry and are anxious, we do harm to ourselves. Worrying can produce physical symptoms like headaches and high blood pressure but it never changes the situation. It could possibly make things worse because it is easy to make the wrong decisions when we panic. Worrying is negative and can accelerate the aging process. In scripture we are warned to: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6 NKJV
Waiting on the LORD keeps us healthy. To wait scripturally is to hope and trust that the LORD will do something we have prayed about but with every certainty that what we are waiting for will happen. However, it requires patience which is why it is called waiting in the first place. Hear what the Word of God says “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:30-31 KJV This tells me that being young is not the same as being strong. From the above we see that young people are not the ones who display strength. The strong ones are those who wait upon the LORD. It does not say anything about their age.
Dear friends, please let us never undermine the importance of health checks. They have their place and help especially with early detection of diseases and can prevent their onsets. The best thing is to go for a check up and be given a clean bill of health. Yet by studying the Word of God daily, staying calm in the midst of trials, trusting God to always help us through unpleasant situations and waiting on the LORD there is a great chance that we will get that clean bill of health. And always remember that God wants us to be healthy. (3 John 1: 2)
LET US STAY HEALTHY WITH THE WORD OF GOD.
OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS©