God Wants You To Be Healthy
The above words are not mine. I heard these words at a sermon given by David George, a missionary evangelist, (www.davidgeorgeworldministries.org) at Trinity Chapel (www.trinitychapel.org) on May 30, 2010. The title of his sermon was "He is Able, But Is He Willing?" Without recanting the entire sermon, one of the key points David George included in his sermon was that "God wants you to be healthy."
In this sermon, pastor David used many scripture verses to demonstrate that God does indeed want us to be healthy. He also refuted one common myth that I have heard people say, "It's God's will for me to be sick." Pastor David noted that if being sick is God's will, then why do sick people try to get healthy? If being sick is the will of God, if that is truly what He wants, then trying to be healthy is against God's will. This is certainly not the case.
Pastor David’s point was very succinct, and very much in line with my beliefs that God not only wants us to be healthy, but He made us to be healthy. The more you study the human body, the more you appreciate the wonders of this creation that many of us take for granted. As I went through my chiropractic education, and I learned the details of human anatomy and physiology, I was constantly amazed at just how magnificent the human body is.
We have within us, everything we need to live a healthy life. Our bodies have all the mechanisms and systems needed to be healthy, and to remain that way. There is a saying in chiropractic that goes, “Nature needs no help, just no interference.” If we think about this, we could just as easily say, God needs no help to keep us healthy, just no interference.
Following this thought, if He wants us to be healthy, and has provided us with everything we need to be healthy, then the only way we can lose our health, is if we interfere with “God's way”. Now before you react to this, I am not suggesting that we get sick because of our sins, or because of any willful turning away from God. (I'm sure that is possible, but I will leave that discussion to theologians.) What I'm suggesting is that God has created us according to His plan. He has given us a world to live in that we are perfectly suited for. It is only when we stray from His plan that our health suffers.
For example, look at the air that we breathe. God gave us clean, fresh air to breathe. If we pollute our air and breathe in poisons, our health will suffer. As individuals we may not make a conscious decision to breathe polluted air. But when we do breathe polluted air, it is obviously not what God intended, and our health suffers.
Let's look at another example. God gave us this wonderful earth to grow fresh food for us to eat. Yet today, most of our diets consist of a large percentage of processed and radiated food, genetically altered food, and food with chemicals and additives that we were never intended to eat. No I'm not suggesting that eating this food is a sin, (again I leave that discussion to others), but I am suggesting that since this is not what God intended, it is not healthy.
This concept also applies to our physical lives, such as the work we do, or the activities we either engage in, or fail to engage in. It also applies to our emotional states, such as stress. There are many areas in which we live out lives different from the way I believe God intended.
One such area where I believe we have grossly strayed from the way God intended is in our own blood streams. As a population, Americans take far more medications and drugs of all kinds than any other nation in the world. According to a study out of Boston University in 2006, "In a given week, an average of 82% of adults in the U.S. are taking at least one medication, 29% are taking five or more." Probably even scarier is the fact that according to this same study, "In any given week, 56% of children are taking at least one medication and 27% take two or more."
I am sure that God did not create us, and yet forget to give us a bunch of chemicals in order for us to be healthy. Now I'm not suggesting that if you are reading this you should throw away all your medications. But I am asking if we have gone too far. Was it God’s plan for us to become the most drugged society in the history of mankind?
Allow me to suggest that we look at health from His plan and ask ourselves if we are following it. I've attended many a Sunday church service that included prayers for members of the congregation who were sick. I do believe in the power of prayer, and that people do heal because of it.
I also believe that He has already answered most of those prayers in our basic design. Genesis 1:27 says, "So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them." Since this is true, then would God have created us with so many defects that we were supposed to get sick and require medication for the rest of our lives? I’ll assume God does not get sick, and since we are created in His likeness, that we were created to be healthy.
I also know that all health comes from God. Having been a doctor for 32 years, I can unequivocally state that I do not heal or cure anyone. I have always believed that what I do is remove interference from the God given ability to be healthy. God gave us everything we need. Therefore, I am in agreement with David George that “God wants you to be healthy”.