Empowered For Healthy Lifestyle
"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." 3 John 2.
The Bible rates health right near the top of the list in importance because it is important to be healthy in mind, body, and spirit. Our mind, spiritual nature, and body are all interrelated and interdependent. What affects one affects the other. If our bodies are misused, our minds and spiritual natures cannot become what God ordained they should. If we are stressed out, our body is impacted. If our body is sick, our mind is impacted. True health happens when we care for our body, mind, and spirit!
Physical Fitness: Overeating is responsible for many degenerative diseases. Eat nourishing food, do not overeat and do everything in moderation. Be generous to your body, nourish your body with physical activity, good foods, water, and sleep, so that you can have plenty of energy to meet life's daily challenges. Proverbs 23:2 --"Put a knife to your neck, if you are a man who is given to too much eating." Proverbs 25:16 - “Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit.” 1 Cor. 10:31 - “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Mental Fitness: Grudges and un-forgiveness disrupt our body processes. A cheerful, happy nature imparts health and prolongs life. Maintain a cheerful, happy state of mind and don't harbor envy or hold grudges. When you are generous to your mind, your mental and emotional health feels less stress, more peaceful, and experience greater focus. Proverbs 14:30 - “A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones." Proverbs 17:22. "A merry heart does good like a medicine...”.
Spiritual Fitness: Feed your spirit with the word, put God first and put full trust in Him. When you are generous to your spirit, you connect with God, yourself and others in meaningful ways. Mathew 4:4 - “But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Proverbs 4:20-22 - "My son, give attention to my words...For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh." Proverbs 19:23 - "The fear of the Lord leads to life: and he who has it will abide in satisfaction."
Because our body is the temple of the Lord, we have a responsibility to care for His temple, and care for it as a matter of love and worship to Him. More than any other factor, our lifestyle is the #1 factor that causes us to be unhealthy. Changing old unhealthy habits is not easy, but essential if we want to become healthier and live a better quality of life.
Do you desire a change of lifestyle? Have you being trying to accomplish this by your strength? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior? If your answer to these questions is yes, then there is good news.
God’s desire for His Children is to live a fulfilled life, in good health and sound mind. He so much wants us to live a fulfilled life amidst all the temptations that surrounds us that He gave us a Helper – The Holy Spirit, to help us overcome every temptation that we might face in life. (John 14:15-17). We have God’s power in us to live the kind of life that He wants us to live and this includes the ability to make desired lifestyle changes. The same mighty power that raised Christ from his grave is available to us. Romans 8:11
We have to recognize that in our own strength we can only do little, compare to what we can accomplish in God’s strength and power. We must submit and surrender to the Holy Spirit, and embrace the spiritual truth that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9). One of the benefits of allowing the Holy Spirit to help us appropriate God’s power to different areas of our lives is that, we get to live a lifestyle that is conducive to good health. Colossians 1:9-12
Like the Apostle Paul, I pray that the “eyes of your heart” might be open and that you are able to understand and appropriate the power that is available to you to make any lifestyle changes you might want to make….all for the glory of God! Ephesians 1:15-19, 3:14-21