Motivated
Sunday, July 9, 2023
And yet I show you a more excellent way. 1 Cor. 12:31, NKJV.
I once knew a woman who suffered from anxiety. Added to all her other anxieties was a big one called "healthful living." She had to do everything right, to be religiously healthful, if you will. She thought God said so!
Another time I knew a man who said he was going to practice "health reform" if it killed him. It almost did.
What's wrong with this approach to health?
A friend of mine uses the expression "health by faith" to denote a healthful lifestyle. Perhaps Jesus went to the root of health by faith when He observed that it isn't what goes into a person, but what comes from his or her heart, that defiles.
What did He mean, anyway? Was He endorsing a diet of all chocolate bars, pizza, and sodas? Are cockroaches suitable for food—if you give thanks for them?
Hardly. I understand Jesus' words to mean something like this: You and I are more, much more, than what we put into our mouths.
Ellen White wrote that "many of the diseases from which men suffer are the result of mental depression. Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death" (The Ministry of Healing, p. 241).
Imagine that Jesus comes up to you and heals you. Can you think of anything He might tell you to go and do no more? Long before that King Solomon said much the same thing: "The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?" (Prov. 18:14, NKJV).
Because a broken spirit produces illness, Jesus treats the soul needs of His patients. For a closer look at His compassion, read the Gospels. Notice how tenderly Jesus cares for those who live right—and even those who don't. And how, in the encouragement of His love, some who have squandered health in one way or another find themselves motivated to go and do so no more.
We hear a great deal about fitness. People urge us to get fit to feel better, live longer, look sharper, think clearer—all legitimate motivations.
And all second-rate.
Let me suggest (with apologies to the apostle Paul) that a more excellent way is love.
Praise God! No matter how desperate our circumstances or how damaged our beginnings, God has a plan for us to be whole.
I once knew a woman who suffered from anxiety. Added to all her other anxieties was a big one called "healthful living." She had to do everything right, to be religiously healthful, if you will. She thought God said so!
Another time I knew a man who said he was going to practice "health reform" if it killed him. It almost did.
What's wrong with this approach to health?
A friend of mine uses the expression "health by faith" to denote a healthful lifestyle. Perhaps Jesus went to the root of health by faith when He observed that it isn't what goes into a person, but what comes from his or her heart, that defiles.
What did He mean, anyway? Was He endorsing a diet of all chocolate bars, pizza, and sodas? Are cockroaches suitable for food—if you give thanks for them?
Hardly. I understand Jesus' words to mean something like this: You and I are more, much more, than what we put into our mouths.
Ellen White wrote that "many of the diseases from which men suffer are the result of mental depression. Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death" (The Ministry of Healing, p. 241).
Imagine that Jesus comes up to you and heals you. Can you think of anything He might tell you to go and do no more? Long before that King Solomon said much the same thing: "The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?" (Prov. 18:14, NKJV).
Because a broken spirit produces illness, Jesus treats the soul needs of His patients. For a closer look at His compassion, read the Gospels. Notice how tenderly Jesus cares for those who live right—and even those who don't. And how, in the encouragement of His love, some who have squandered health in one way or another find themselves motivated to go and do so no more.
We hear a great deal about fitness. People urge us to get fit to feel better, live longer, look sharper, think clearer—all legitimate motivations.
And all second-rate.
Let me suggest (with apologies to the apostle Paul) that a more excellent way is love.
Praise God! No matter how desperate our circumstances or how damaged our beginnings, God has a plan for us to be whole.
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
Previous | Today | Next