Caring for Our Inner Being
There is no shortage of advice these days on how to best care for oneself and effectively treat disease. The Internet, television, and book sellers are teeming with resources, including a host of multi-part documentaries with titles such as The Truth About Cancer, The Healing Miracle, The Broken Brain, and The Sacred Plant.
While there is a ton of good information out there, it’s a bit overwhelming. The good news is that certain core factors that impact our health are repeated over and over. These include nutrition, exercise, sleep, toxins, rest, stress, thoughts, and beliefs. It’s pretty much common sense these days that we should eat a diet that is predominantly vegetables, fruit, seeds and nuts while minimizing or eliminating sugar, white flour, processed food, and animal protein; exercise and generally move more throughout each day; sleep seven-to-eight hours per night; rest and recharge during waking hours through meditation, relaxation, hobbies and fun; avoid toxins like tobacco, illicit drugs, and environmental pollutants; and minimize and eliminate stress and negative/unhealthy attitudes and beliefs.
While all these things are true and beneficial, they don’t give us a complete picture. We must do more to reach a truly comprehensive state of good health that accounts for our spirit, soul, heart, and body. The Bible reveals a host of connections between things like prayer and thanksgiving and good health and peace. Let’s consider an example. The apostle Paul wrote the following to the church at Philippi:
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.[1]
These versus indicate that prayer, freedom from worry, petitioning God, and thanksgiving result in peace of mind and heart. Consider another example in the Old Testament:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.[2]
The first part of this passage links trust in God and seeking His will to His supernatural direction. The second part links humility, fear of the Lord, and the rejection of evil to healing and strength.
Let’s discuss some major factors that contribute to good health and healing that are seldom addressed in mainstream resources. These relate to the care of our soul and spirit.
Nutrition
Practices such as Bible study, prayer, and fasting are major ways in which we feed and care for the unseen parts of our being. Jesus provided an excellent example of the importance of God’s Word[3] at the start of His ministry when He fasted for 40 days and nights. During that time Satan tempted Him at one point by saying, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus responded by quoting an Old Testament scripture: “People do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”[4]
There are several things worth highlighting in these verses. First, Jesus considered God’s Word to be a form of food—spiritual food. Second, He demonstrated that He valued the Word over anything else including physical food offered to Him while he was extremely hungry. Third, Jesus used God’s Word to counter a temptation thrown at Him by the devil—through the misuse of God’s Word, no less. Finally, Jesus prepared for His encounter with Satan by fasting, which is an example of fasting’s supernatural power. There is no question as to the importance of God’s Word to us. Numerous scriptures point to the power of God’s Word to impact our lives. Consider the following:
John 6:63 – “[The] very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
Psalm 119:37 –Turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life through your word.
Proverbs 4:20-22 – My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. (The Message translation reads: Those who discover these words live, really live; body and soul, they’re bursting with health.)
Deuteronomy 32:46-47 – Take to heart all the words of warning I have given you today… These instructions are not empty words – they are your life! By obeying them you will enjoy a long life…
Psalm 19:7 – The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul.
Romans 15:4 – [The] Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.
Colossians 3:16 (NLT 96) – Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise.
While I could quote many more scriptures, these are most amazing. They indicate that engagement with the Bible results in numerous benefits including life, healing, refreshment for our souls, hope, encouragement, wisdom, guidance, and power. It’s truly supernatural.
The claim that engagement with the Bible has a very real impact on people’s lives has been supported by actual data. One example is the REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey developed by Willow Creek Community Church. Between 2004 and 2011, Willow Creek surveyed over 250,000 people across more than 1,000 diverse congregations and published the results in a book entitled MOVE.[5] One of the many discoveries of the survey was that, “Nothing has greater impact on spiritual growth than reflection on Scripture. If churches could do only one thing to help people at all levels of spiritual maturity grow… [they] would inspire, encourage, and equip their people to read the Bible – specifically, to reflect on Scripture for meaning in their lives… [This] is much more influential than any other practice by a significant margin.”[6]
It’s critical that we also act on what we learn when we read and reflect on God’s Word. The Apostle James wrote the following:
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves… [If] you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. [7]
I didn’t really understand the practical power of God’s Word until I committed to memorizing and applying it to my life. Several years ago, I decided to identify and memorize scriptures related to a challenge I was facing and recite/think about them whenever I became anxious about that issue. I found the experience to be so beneficial that I decided to repeat the exercise for a host of other issues and questions I had been wrestling with. If I was growing impatient with God, I would memorize and recite scriptures about His perfect timing. If I felt discouraged and hopeless, I internalized scriptures about the benefits of unwavering hope and courage. Before long, I had memorized a good deal of scripture. More importantly, the Bible came alive for me and I grew remarkably in my ability to endure the inevitable storms of life. I saw the supernatural power of God’s Word at work in a potent and practical way.
The process of memorizing and reciting scriptures also became a form of prayer. As I repeated verses out loud, they had an affirming effect on me. I was, in essence, speaking truth to myself and the truth became increasingly real and made me progressively stronger. I no longer consider reading and reflecting on God’s Word to be Bible “study,” something burdensome to be crossed off my daily to-do list. Now I strongly desire to get in the Word every day because I have seen its power to transform my life and the lives of others.
It’s also worth pointing out that the Bible considers Jesus to be spiritual food and drink. Writing about the Israelites as they moved through the wilderness, Paul notes, “All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.”[8] Jesus Himself said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever… Anyone who eats this bread will not die….”[9]
And where did Jesus get His nourishment? After speaking to the Samaritan woman at a well, Jesus said, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about… My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.”[10]
More food for thought.
Exercise
In the first century A.D., the apostle Paul exhorted a young disciple: “[Train] yourself to be godly. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”[11] In the book of Acts, Paul is quoted as saying to the Governor in Caesarea, “I exercise myself to [always have] a conscience void of offence toward God and men.”[12] In these two verses, Paul is clearly talking about exercising and building up unseen things—in these cases godliness and conscience.
So how do we exercise unseen parts of our being? It turns out there are several ways, but we’ll focus on one—faith—and the role that trials play in building it.
The Bible tells us that faith is the “reality of what we hope for [and] the evidence of things we cannot see,” and that every believer is given a “measure of faith.”[13] It also tells us that, “[It] is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”[14]
A primary way we exercise and build our faith—if not the primary way—is through trials. Consider the following passage written by James, the brother of Jesus:
[When] troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.[15]
Also, consider the following words written by the apostle Paul to the believers in Rome:
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.[16]
One pastor uses the story of Jesus calming a storm at sea to drive home this point. He notes that God brings us into storms (i.e., trials), allows these storms to test our faith, lets us linger in these storms, and then leads us to calm waters. He notes that God's sovereignty over all areas of life means that, “Every storm is scheduled by Him, every storm is controlled by Him, and every storm finds its ultimate meaning in Him… [The] storm [that Jesus calmed] tested the faith of the disciples in the boat, not their seamanship.”[17]
Our faith muscle becomes weak when we respond poorly to trials, and we grow fearful, jaded, and lose trust in God. On the other hand, when we respond to our trials with confidence in God’s good purpose for them, our faith becomes strong and we are able to withstand increasing difficulties down the road.
Pastor Paul Tripp has a term to describe this process—the redemptive violence of grace. He notes that God sometimes takes us to a place where we would never go on our own to produce change in us that can only happen in that place. I have been to such places a number of times in my life, including when my wife divorced me over ten years ago, and afterward when I helped her through her battle with pancreatic cancer. I would have never chosen to go through either experience, but when I look back on them, I can see that I grew dramatically in each situation.
Sleep and rest
There is no shortage of evidence validating the importance of seven to eight hours of good sleep every night and resting/recharging during waking hours. What is less well known, though, is the role God plays in helping us achieve these things. Consider the following scriptures:
Psalm 127:2 – It is useless for you to work so hard, from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones. (The Hebrew word for “rest” means sleep.)
Psalm 4:8 – In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.
Matthew 11:28-30 – Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Exodus 20:8-10– Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work.
I’d like to zero in on the last scripture. Thousands of years ago, God commanded His chosen people to honor the Sabbath day by resting on it. They were to do this because, “[In] six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”[18] Observation of the Sabbath was also a “sign” of the special relationship that God had with Israel.[19] While there is debate as to whether Christians are required to observe the Sabbath today, there is a growing realization that people need to unplug, recharge, and refresh periodically—and the Sabbath is a great way of doing so.
I totally get this. Many years ago, I was part of a church that formally observed the Sabbath. From sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday (the true 7th day), my wife and I would stop working and gather together with like-minded believers for church, fellowship, and fun. We fell out of this practice as we began to drift away from that particular church and, before we knew it, we were running hard, seven days a week.
Only in the last few years did I recall what a blessing a day of rest was at the end of every week, and how out of control my life had gotten. In a sense, the Sabbath forces the discipline of checking out every week and restoring our bodies, souls, and spirits. The need for this is captured beautifully by author Andrew Sullivan in an article recounting his fifteen-year descent into social media obsession. He writes:
The reason we live in a culture increasingly without faith is not because science has somehow disproved the unprovable, but because the white noise of secularism has removed the very stillness in which it might endure or be reborn.
The Judeo-Christian tradition recognized a critical distinction—and tension—between noise and silence, between getting through the day and getting a grip on one’s life. The Sabbath… was a collective imposition of relative silence, a moment of calm to reflect on our lives under the light of eternity. It helped define much of Western public life once a week for centuries – only to dissipate, with scarcely a passing regret, into the commercial cacophony of the past couple of decades. It reflected a now-battered belief that a sustained spiritual life is simply unfeasible for most mortals without these refuges from noise and work to buffer us and remind us who we really are.[20]
I began observing a weekly day of rest again a few years ago, this time on Sundays. I make sure I do no formal work. I just go to church and lunch with my daughter and generally walk through the day at a far more leisurely pace than on the other six days of the week. I also make a point of connecting/reconnecting with friends on that day and enjoying some quality fellowship. It has made a huge difference in my life, and I can’t imagine my life without this peaceful, sacred time.
Beliefs and thoughts
The Apostle Paul instructed the Romans as follows: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”[21]
There are numerous ways we can change our thinking. Perhaps the most important is sober thinking. Jesus once said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”[22] Jesus also said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”[23]
When it comes to spiritual and soul healing, what we think about our condition is of paramount importance. If we want to heal, we must first recognize that we need a doctor—that we are spiritually and morally broken. These are the poor in spirit, and they mourn the fact that they are so. In the words of John Piper, “Blessed are the people who feel keenly their inadequacies, and their guilt and their failures and their helplessness and their unworthiness and their emptiness—who don’t try to hide these things under a cloak of self-sufficiency, but who are honest about them and grieved and driven to the grace of God.”[24] Such people live in a state of spiritual well-being and prosperity that doesn’t make sense in our world but makes perfect sense in God’s Kingdom.
In addition to sober thinking, we also need God-focused and surrendered thinking. Consider the following scriptures:
Isaiah 26:3 – You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! (“You” in this verse is God.)
Matthew 6:31-34 – “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
Ephesians 4:21-24 – Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
Fixing our thoughts on God and trusting him leads to things like perfect peace, receiving everything we need, and holiness and righteousness. These are truly supernatural benefits.
While there are certainly other changes we can make in our thoughts and beliefs, I’ll close this section with Paul’s final exhortation in his letter to the Philippian church:
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.[25]
Toxins
There is growing understanding of the negative effects that toxins have on our physical and mental health. While our immune system is a marvelous detoxifier, it has become increasingly overwhelmed by the staggering amount of chemicals we ingest, breathe, and otherwise encounter on a daily basis. As a result, more and more healthcare professionals are recommending various detoxification programs to cleanse our systems, restore normal functioning, and help us heal and thrive.
In the same way, there are spiritual toxins that harm our spirit, soul, and body. The overarching toxin that needs to be dealt with is sin, which is basically rebellion against God and His will. Sin includes aspects such as jealousy, outbursts of anger, deceit, hypocrisy, selfish ambition, hostility, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, unkind speech, idolatry, sexual immorality, and many other things.[26] There is no question that behaviors and attitudes like these hurt us spiritually and physically.
The remedy for sin is repentance, belief in the Gospel, and trust that God will help us overcome. This is no small challenge in light of our sinful nature. Consider the following scriptures:
Jeremiah 17:9 – The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.
Romans 8:7 – [Our] sinful nature is always hostile to God.
Galatians 5:17 – The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what [God’s] Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other…
Genesis 6:5-6 – The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil… It broke his heart.
1 Peter 2:11 – [Your] worldly desires wage war against your very souls.
The good news is that, “[We] can do everything through Christ, who gives [us] strength.”[27] The Bible reveals that when we place our faith in Christ we undergo a surgical procedure where He cuts away our sinful nature.[28] It reveals that if we submit our minds to the control of God’s Spirit we will experience life and peace and the Spirit will produce the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in our lives.[29]
Another toxin to consider is unforgiveness. All religions value forgiveness, but the Christian religion requires it. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”[30] Jesus said we should pray to God to, “forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.”[31] He also said that, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”[32]
God’s forgiveness of our sins, a crucial aspect of our lives as followers of Jesus Christ, is tied to our forgiveness of others. If we want to receive the spiritual healing that comes with forgiveness, we must freely forgive those who have hurt and offended us. Whether we’re talking about repentance, forgiveness, or any other form of spiritual detoxification, they all involve choice. Consider the words of the Apostle Paul:
Don’t be misled… You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.[33]
There is one more thing I would like to consider that offers tremendous benefits to all three parts of our being. That thing is fasting, and I will cover it in a future blog post. (It’s also in my Healing Plunge book, which is available for free here.)
FOOTNOTES
[1] Philippians 4:6-7.
[2] Proverbs 3:5-8.
[3] I treat the terms Bible, God’s Word, and the Word as interchangeable from here on out.
[4] Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3.
[5] MOVE: What 1,000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth, Greg L. Hawkins & Cally Parkinson, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 2011.
[6] Ibid, pages 19 and 117-118.
[7] James 1:22-25.
[8] 1 Corinthians 10:3-4.
[9] John 6:51,58.
[10] John 4:32,34.
[11] 1 Timothy 4:7-8.
[12] Acts 24:16 (KJV).
[13] Hebrews 11:1 and Romans 12:3 (KJV).
[14] Hebrews 11:6.
[15] James 1:2-4.
[16] Romans 5:3-4.
[17] Building the Faith Muscle, Mike Mazzalongo, YouTube video, 8:45-9:30, October 23, 2016. See: https://bibletalk.tv/building-the-faith-muscle.
[18] Exodus 20:11.
[19] Exodus 31:13,17.
[20] I Used to be a Human Being, Andrew Sullivan, New York Magazine, September 19, 2016. See: https://slct.al/2G1knX1.
[21] Romans 12:2.
[22] Mark 2:17.
[23] Matthew 5:3-4 (NIV).
[24] Blessed are the Poor in Spirit Who Mourn, John Piper sermon, DesiringGod.org, February 2, 1986.
[25] Philippians 4:8.
[26] Galatians 5:19-21 and 1 Peter 2:1.
[27] Philippians 4:13.
[28] Colossians 2:11.
[29] Romans 8:6 and Galatians 5:22-23.
[30] Colossians 3:13.
[31] Matthew 6:12.
[32] Matthew 6:14-15.
[33] Galatians 6:7-8.