Greater Health...God's Way!

Are you the type of person who always seems to do as you please with regard to your health to the point of abusing or neglecting it?  Consuming all the junk foods, fatty foods, coffee, soda, alcohol and cigarettes you want, or not getting enough rest and exercise?  Or are you the type of person who knows the right way to stay healthy, but choose to ignore and not to follow?  Or are you like me who have the determination to live healthy but did not exactly know how and where to begin?

It was only after I became a stay-at-home, hands-on mom to my two little “angels” that I decided to pursue a healthy lifestyle.  I realized there are now lives that are dependent on me, and it would not be fair to them to not take care of myself as I take care of them.  And as I seek to know God more intimately, all the more that I am determined to honor Him in my life by loving, respecting and taking care of the body God gave me, which is the temple of His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  To be honest, however, my current health condition is still far from my ideal.  I am still a “work-in-progress” - learning what my options are, and working myself towards pursuing a healthy lifestyle with discipline and determination…and lots of prayer!

I have been reading health books and subscribing to health articles over the internet to get information and practical approach to achieve optimum health the natural way.  Most of the books and articles I have read, however, deal mostly with the physical and mental aspects of health.  Seldom do I find a good reading material that discusses the spiritual side, which I believe has the greatest impact on how we live and view life.

Bestselling author of “The Power of a Praying” books and other inspirational books, and fitness expert, and I must add, one of my favorite book authors, Stormie Omartian, provides a creative and practical approach to developing not just the person’s mind and body, but also the spirit as she draws on her own experiences and shares her seven steps to inner and outer beauty through her book, “Greater Health God’s Way”.  Her seven steps must work together in proper balance to bring about and preserve good health and well-being, and these are:

-          peaceful living

-          pure food

-          proper exercise

-          plenty of water

-          prayer and fasting

-          periods of fresh air and sunlight

-          perfect rest

The steps sound plain and simple, don’t you think?  As the author admits it, they are indeed simple.  God’s ways are always beautifully simple…and I must add, perfect.  It is we who make everything complicated.  As the author puts it,

“We live so very far from the way God intended us to live.  That’s why there is so much pain and sickness, so many headaches, heart attacks, bad tempers, mental illness, and just plain lack of joy.  We suffer a great deal just because of our own ignorance about God’s ways.”

Most of the time, we want to gratify our flesh more than we want to serve our God.  Our spiritual lives influence our physical condition far more than we often realize.  As the author mentioned in her book,

“If we are disciplined in the care of our physical bodies, we are far more likely to be disciplined in our spiritual lives, too.”

And I think if we are not disciplined in our spiritual lives, most likely we are far less disciplined in the care of our physical bodies, too.

God designed the body to be self-repairing and self-healing if we treat it properly.  The author’s most important goal in writing this book is to convince her readers that God’s ways are more than good.  They are perfect.  We experience unnecessary pain and misery only because we do not follow God’s ways.  And for those of you, like me, who were not healthy to begin with and did not have the advantage of good nutrition and knowledge of God’s ways towards health, there is hope.  The Seven Steps to Greater Health are a guide to show us how to do it.

I highly recommend this book.  Some of her minor points may not be in agreement with what other health resources say.  But here is where you can find help in starting to develop the structure you need to become healthy physically, mentally and spiritually, as well as find encouragement that there is a God who loves us perfectly and unconditionally and wants us to live our life closer to the way He intends us to live it.

More about the seven steps in my succeeding blog post…For now, you may want to commit yourself to working your way towards living a healthy and God-glorifying life because, after all, this is what He desires us to do.  God bless you!