Healing Beyond the Test Tube Part III
"Don't worry about things—food, drink, and clothes ... don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow, too. Live one day at a time."1
In our series on "Healing Beyond the Test Tube" we said that the first law of health and healing was clean living—that is, physical hygiene, sanitation, and moral living. The second law is being free from stress and worry.
The writer of the Proverbs stated, "A tranquil mind gives life to the body."2 And as Jesus said in today's Scripture verse: "Don't worry about things—food, drink, and clothes ... don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow, too. Live one day at a time."
Dr. William Saddler once remarked, "No one can appreciate as fully as a doctor the amazingly large percentage of human disease and suffering which is directly traceable to worry, fear, conflict, immorality, dissipation, and ignorance—to unwholesome thinking and unclean living. The sincere acceptance of the principles and teachings of Christ with respect to the life of mental peace and joy, the life of unselfish thought and clean living, would at once wipe out more than half the difficulties, diseases, and sorrows of the human race. In other words, more than one-half of the present afflictions of mankind could be prevented by the tremendous prophylactic power of actually living up to the personal and practical spirit of the real teachings of Christ."3
A Sure Cure
The third law for health and healing is confession and prayer. The modern or medical word for old-fashioned confession is "catharsis." It means an emptying out. And it is now known that one of the most powerful tools for healing is an emptying out of our supercharged repressed negative emotions of anger, hostility, guilt, fear, anxieties, and all the things that worry and bother us. As someone has wisely said, it is not so much what we eat that upsets us, but what eats us.
But this principle of emptying out or confession is as old as the Bible. Two thousand years ago, James, the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, wrote, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him."4
But the important point to note in finding healing is that the Scriptures didn't stop at that point. James went on to say, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed."5
Before prayer can be effective, genuine confession, or an emptying out is needed to both God and at least one other person. This confession of sins includes our emotional sins and faults such as repressed negative emotions of fear, anxiety, hostility, resentment, etc. as well as our guilt for wrongdoing. These are killers and need to be confessed and emptied out before healing can take place.
To be continued....
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to get in touch with all of my negative emotions and everything in my life that is hindering or blocking my healing. And help me to find a safe and trusted person to whom I can confess all my emotions, my failures, and my sins so that I can and will be healed. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. Matthew 6:25, 34 (Living Bible)(NIV).
2. Proverbs 14:30.
3. McMillen, S.I, None of These Diseases, (c) 1963. Fleming H. Revell, Co., Westwood, NJ. Used by permission. P 67. (Note: this book has since been updated).
4. James 5:14-15.
5. James 5:16.
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All articles on this website are written by
Richard (Dick) Innes unless otherwise stated.