Enjoy good health!

Good health is a state that everyone desires. In fact, to be healthy is wealth and it saves one from the physical and mental stress that comes with having a sick body. I am yet to find people who pray to get sick and if there are such people on earth, then they are a very strange group of people. However, many people lose sight of the advantages of good health and they take for granted that to be without infirmities is a treasure. A healthy church demonstrates spiritual and physical well-being. The individual members strive for spiritual growth and maturity in the things of God and are also conscious of taking good care of themselves. Let’s imagine our bodies as horses God has given us to go on the journey of life. This journey is long, winding and the paths can sometimes be difficult to tread on. If we fail to take care of the horses that are carrying us for the journey, they will faint and die. 

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. (3 John 1:2) 

John the Elder, writing to his dear friend (Gaius) gave this profound statement: “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well” (3 John 1:2). John showed his interest in the physical and spiritual well-being of Gaius. Enjoying good health is a bonus we have from Good if we act as good stewards of the bodies He has entrusted to us. If there is anyone more interested in our well-being, it is God! He has given us all the wisdom needed for godliness, holiness and living healthy. When we choose to ignore our health, we indirectly ignore God’s words to us. One of the ways in which the church can spur members to strive for good health is through sensitizing on healthy Christian lifestyles. 

When the church (as a corporate unit) understands the importance of enjoying good health, there will be an urgency to admonish believers to strive for healthy lifestyles. Further, we need to understand that without the right approach to understanding spiritual growth and the relationship to good health   we might end up having a wrong perception about physical training. God desires that we live in good health, and throughout the New Testament, we see Jesus healing the sick on several occasions to show God’s compassion towards the weak and the vulnerable. All the people who received their healing in the Bible did not remain on their sick beds. Some were told to rise up and walk, others jumped in praise to God, others were commanded to walk to show themselves to the priest, others were told to be given food, others sat up (from their death beds), others stretched their hands to touch Jesus and many other physical activities. When we are trusting God for healing one of the baby steps we can take is to let our bodies respond to healing. Take a walk, eat healthy food, jump if you can and do things that require you to move yourself.

Today, I pray for people who are sick and cannot even move from their beds. I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.