HEALTH-PHYSICAL
Much sickness
– physical, mental, and emotional – surely must come from disobedience. When
the soul is confronted with an alternative of right or wrong and chooses to
blur the distinction, making excuses for its bewilderment and frustration, it
is exposed to infection. Evil is given the opportunity to invade the mind, the
spirit, and the body and the sick person goes off to an expert who will diagnose
his trouble. Sometimes the patient knows well what his trouble is and for this
very reason has not consulted the Lord, fearing what He will say: Confess. Turn
around. Quit that indulgence. Do not pity yourself. Forgive that person. Pay
back what you owe. Apologize. Tell the truth. Deny yourself. Consider the
other’s well-being. Lay down your life.
Discipline – The Glad Surrender, Revell, 1982, p. 74.
It is the
part of a Christian to take care of his own body for the very purpose that by
its soundness and well-being he may be enabled to labor for the aid of those
who are in want, and thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member.
Martin Luther
Too many
people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills,
stretching the truth, bending over backward, lying down on the job and side
stepping responsibility.
Author Unknown
In…the
instances where faith is mentioned (in Matthew 9), the object of faith was in
Jesus’ ability to heal, not His will to heal. Today as we pray for the healing
of our friends or loved ones who suffer severe illness or disease, we too
should believe that God is able to heal, either directly or through
conventional means. To say I have faith that God will heal is presumptuous
since we do not know the mind of God, but to say God is able to heal is to
exercise faith.
Jerry Bridges
Jesus’
Healing Ministry, Tabletalk, April, 2008. Used by Permission.
We
have no right to expect that all our illnesses will be healed in this present
age, only in the eternal state will Christ’s work be fully applied and all
disease gone. Still, we should pray for the sick knowing that our God may bring
healing if we ask in faith and trust in His good purposes.
Author Unknown
Tabletalk,
April, 2008, p. 26. Used by Permission.
As with many things in life, there are extremes in the area of exercise. Some
people focus entirely on spirituality, to the neglect of their physical bodies.
Others focus so much attention on the form and shape of their physical bodies
that they neglect spiritual growth and maturity. Neither of these indicates a
biblical balance. First Timothy 4:8 informs us, “For physical training is of
some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both
the present life and the life to come.” Notice that the verse does not negate
the need for exercise. Rather, it says that exercise is valuable, but it
prioritizes exercise correctly by saying that godliness is of greater value.
Author Unknown
Got Answers, Question: “Should a Christian exercise? What does the Bible
say about health?” Used by Permission.
The
Bible warns against vanity (1 Samuel 16:7; Proverbs 31:30; 1 Peter 3:3-4). Our
goal in exercise should not be to improve the quality of our bodies so that
other people will notice and admire us. Rather, the goal of exercising should
be to improve our physical health so we will possess more physical energy that
we can devote to spiritual goals.
Author Unknown
Got Answers, Question: “Should a Christian exercise? What does the Bible
say about health?” Used by Permission.
Health is a
good thing; but sickness is far better, if it leads us to God.
J.C.
Ryle
Commentary, Matthew 15.
How do you
glorify God through exercise?
1.
It
fosters gratitude for legs, heart, and lungs. The older I get the more keenly
aware I am of how fragile I am. And every breath I take, if I were able to maintain consciousness of truth, I would give
thanks to God that he has given me these.
2.
What
are your motives in doing it? [Is it] the desire to be both mentally and
physically at peak performance for Christian ministry.
3.
How
[do] you do it? [Modest attire? Noisy? Too rough?]... In other words, are
you exercising in a loving way?
4.
Finally,
do you have an eye to turning it into ministry? In other words, can you draw somebody
in with you who needs some help with their discipline? Are you willing to stop
along the way to help somebody, like the good
Samaritan? Are you willing to do some evangelism along the way so that you stop
and share Jesus?
John Piper
Excerpted from: How do you glorify God through exercise? March 31, 2008, Used
by Permission, www.DesiringGod.org.
Though I have a body that had languished under great
weaknesses for many years, and my diseases have been such as require as much
exercise as almost any in the world, and I have found exercise the principal
means of my preservation till now, and, therefore, have as great reason to
plead for it as any man that I know, yet I have found that the foresaid
proportion hath been blessed to my preservation, though I know that much more
had been like to have tended to my greater health. Indeed, I do not know one
minister in a hundred that needs so much exercise as myself.
Yea, I know abundance of ministers, that scarce ever use any exercise at all,
though I commend them not in this. I doubt not but it is our duty to use so
much exercise as is necessary for the preservation of our health, so far as our
work requires; otherwise, we should, for one day’s work, lose the opportunity
of many. But this may be done, and yet the work that we are engaged in, be done
too.
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 3, Part 2.