YOU ARE BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT - NOT JUST ONE
Taking action with God's help to protect your Achilles heel
In Isaiah, God says, "Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." The Hebrew word often translated "strength" is a word that means "a place of refuge". It suggests a place of safety that I can get to in a hurry. God expects each of us to make a decision about our safety zone. He tells us that we must choose if we are going to rely on our own efforts in this world or if we are going to rely entirely on Him. There is no intermediate ground. We can't have a little bit of the world's safety and a little bit of God's just in case. This is a matter of ultimate concern. We either live in a world that is trustworthy because we trust the Creator, or we live in a world of our own making. God tells us that living in a world of our own making will always mean living with fear and risk.
When we choose to find our place of safety with God, we have His strength behind us. That is a comfortable and secure environment, but it isn't a lazy one. God expects us to take care of His creation, and that includes the body that He made for you. So, while we are secure in His strength, we are obligated to serve Him. That means work. And the first job is you. Your well-being, in body, mind and spirit, is work God expects you to do. We are called to be caretakers of who we are. To feed ourselves both physically and spiritually with proper diets. To exercise our physical and spiritual body in order to grow as He wishes. There are no lazy followers in God's kingdom.
This is emphasized in Isaiah 59:17 where the Bible declares, "For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak." You’ve heard it before, “I can’t believe he/she died, got cancer, etc. he/she took such good care of him/her-self.” Why does this usually happen? Often, it’s a hole or several holes in the “health armor.”
Maybe they worked out hard, but did not take in the right nutrients. Or visa-versa, maybe they did manage to eat well, but exercised inconsistently. Usually, people are subluxated, so no matter what their lifestyle systems breakdown. Or perhaps they were fit, but did not have their spiritual lives in order and therefore suffered from overpowering levels of stress. Spinal health, mental health, toxicity, medications, poor relationships, etc., etc. if not under control can all lead to holes in the armor of health and become literally, the Achilles heel.
True prosperity is success in all areas of your life, and not just one or two. To be a healthy, happy person you have to consider ALL of you – body, mind, and spirit. This is not to be so entrenched in discipline and hard work that you lose your joy. Yet, to be the person God created you to be, and to live long enough and well enough to accomplish all of the wonderful tasks you were born to achieve, you must be a good steward of all the amazing parts of you and not just 1 or 2 or 0. You must care for them all. Just eating well, just exercising, just being rich, or just reading the Bible doesn’t accomplish that. The areas left over can be the hole in your armor. Good news, God has promised to help!
So, relax. God's place is safe. Then get to work. God's place is full of good activity.
Remember with God, all things are possible,
Dr. Ben