Occasionally we hear people who are hurting
have been told that they should not seek treatment because that shows a lack of
faith in the Lord’s power to heal. Faith certainly is an important part of
health and healing. God is the great
physician and He does heal us – emotionally, mentally, and physically; and we
should seek his intervention in any physical difficulty. However, an important
aspect of faith is using good stewardship over our physical bodies with the resources
and opportunities that God provides us.
God is a healer and He is also sovereign over
everything, including the use of medication. The Lord gave us the intelligence
and the ability as His creation to discover medicinal practices that help treat
our physical ailments. Doctors and treatment can bring healing and recovery. Even
though our trust should ultimately be in the Lord, the Church can assist with
linkage to care and treatment for stewarding our physical bodies well.
Pastor
Rick Warren describes the importance of taking care of our physical bodies in
the message below:
“Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can
do for him” (Romans
12:1 MSG).
Taking care of your body is a spiritual discipline, like
prayer, worship, or Bible study. God wants you to succeed at this.
The apostle Paul says, with God helping you, “Take your
everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and
walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering” (Romans
12:1 MSG).
When you take care of your body, you worship God. And it’s
never too late to start this important journey in your life.
Before you ever start your journey of getting healthy, you
need to realize that it’s a step of faith. Like Peter stepping out of the boat,
every step you take toward better health increases your trust in God. Every
step helps you expect the best from him. The same verse also says, “Embracing
what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”
The Bible embraces four incredibly important truths about
the journey of getting healthy. Grasping these truths before you begin will
change everything about the journey before you.
God made your body. Psalm 139:13 says, “For you created my inmost
being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (NIV). Physical
health is as much about stewardship as where you give your resources.
God expects me to take care of my body. I am not the owner of my body, but
I am the caretaker, or manager, of it.
The word for manager in the
Bible is steward. Taking care of my body is an issue of
spiritual stewardship. In fact, God
tells me that one day I will have to give an account for how well I managed
everything he gave to me, including my body.
I will stand before God and have to answer the question, “What did you
do with what I gave you?”
God
will resurrect my body after I die. God
never wastes anything. He gets the maximum
use out of all he creates. Right now you
are living in the 1.0 version of your body.
You will get the 2.0 version of your body in heaven… In heaven your body
will be perfect, with no blemishes, no broken parts, no wounds, and no pain.
The Bible says, “By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will
raise us also” (1 Corinthians 6:14).
The Holy Spirit lives in your body. If you’re a Christian, the
Bible says your body is God’s temple and that the Holy Spirit lives in you (1
Corinthians 3:16). Good health is one way you take care of God’s temple. You’d
never let your church building get into poor shape, and God wants you to think
of your body in the same way.
Knowing the truth about your body makes acting on that truth
a step of faith. It means you’re no longer getting healthy just to live a few
more years, fit into a particular item of clothing in your closet, or look more
physically attractive. You’re getting healthy as a way to worship God.
That’s a terrific and empowering reason to get healthy and
get into treatment if needed.
PLAY
today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>
Consider these questions with your support group or small
groups:
- Which of the three truths about the body discussed in
this devotional do you think would empower you the most in your journey to
health? Why?
- How is getting healthy a spiritual discipline?
- What step will you take today to become healthier?
Questions? Email HIV@saddleback.com
or call 949-609-8555.