Health Through the Psalms

Yes, this path of righteousness is for everyone, but it must be present in us, His people, if we are going to be a light to the world. If we are depressed or oppressed, if we are ungrateful or selfish, if we are fighting or arguing, if we are tired or unmotivated, if we are unhealthy or unholy, how can we do His will? How can we fulfill the good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do if we never progress out of unhealthy or less optimum conditions to be able to share, with compassion and understanding, both the truth of His love as well as what we have learned through and from the trials we have faced? In fact, if we have any stress or challenge which causes any part of our brain, body or beliefs to be “ill”, we are not in a position to lead others, but rather we are in a position to be led. I am not at all saying that our hardships, whether they be illness in our bodies, mental challenges or spiritual setbacks, are going to prevent God from using us. Not at all. In fact, He might very well use us more during the lowest points of our lives. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. However, I don't think He wants us to dwell there. God wants us to have freedom. He wants us to have joy and satisfaction in Him. He wants to bring us to a spacious place to freely enjoy Him and others and to be able to embrace, encourage, challenge and help others. Ultimately, He wants us to do His Will and loving Him and others is His will. However, even if He chooses to keep us in certain places despite our yearnings to be set free from them, we are assured that His peace will guard us. Storms do not need to destroy us unless God chooses to use them to give us final deliverance to Him. This is why I so desire to bring this material to you. Calling it “material” is actually far from what it is. What follows is my deepest yearning and learning from a place of craving God’s satisfaction, wisdom, peace, joy, acceptance, strength, guidance, from a place of feelings of rejection, sadness, fear, concern, anxiety, struggle, desire to control and fix, and ultimately from a place of realizing how God’s word is related to health in my own brain, body and beliefs. It represents years of research and personal study both for myself and my family that stem from the realization that what the world, the medical community, the food industry, the social guidance and even the teachings of many church leaders have been too overwhelmed to address or connect, not to mention to adequately help. This has prevented the church from offering trusted individuals to walk alongside of the those looking to them for guidance. It has prevented doctors from truly giving their clients what they need and it has prevented the proper training of all practitioners. The principle is this: the connection of the brain to the body to the beliefs; or the connection of the body to the brain to the beliefs or the connection of the beliefs to the brain to the body. All three matter. So many people rely on just one thing or one person or one idea as their solution to their problem or dilemma. Just as our bodies need all of the parts to work together for the whole and our church body needs all the members with different gifts to fulfill God’s plan, we also need more than one aspect to influence our overall health. I believe the easiest way to say this is that we need to look at the brain, the body and the beliefs of our entire person to tackle everything, whether it be fatigue, sickness, depression, poor relationships, financial concerns, poor job opportunities, family dilemmas or even the celebration of a baby’s birth. We must nourish all three areas of our complete person because these are all related in every individual and they affect each other uniquely. They all matter. It is my strong opinion and belief based both on knowledge, research, scriptural study and personal experience that we cannot expect to have optimum health if we are not nourishing ourselves the way God intended. You might think I am talking about food. Well, at times, yes, I am definitely referring to food, and I will continue to without stopping. However, I purpose to address the nourishment of other facets of our person which include nourishing relationships, nourishing habits, nourishing mindsets, nourishing teachings on God’s word, nourishing reading and all other kinds of nourishing inputs that come our way. Food is not the only nourishment we get, and while we usually nourish our own selves, our environment, unbeknownst to us might, nourish us without our knowing it. The environment of what we see, hear, smell, feel and touch certainly nourishes you and me, but is this nourishment always beneficial for us or are they harming us? These are the types of ideas that I want to encourage you to analyze as we spend the next 12 weeks together. Please don’t feel lectured to or judged…these are the questions I ask myself, sometimes with unwillingness to behave according to what I know would be good for me. When I do this, I weaken myself, I weaken my family and I weaken the whole church. Think about that for a minute. If I am not at my own personal optimum level of health in my brain, body and beliefs, the whole church is affected. I judge myself here. I do not judge you. I only want to awaken you to the same ideas and truths that challenge me and continue to keep me desiring God and His will for myself and everyone.