“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Luke10:27
What do you think of when you hear the word HEALTH? Is it doctors, diet, exercise, or disease prevention? With all the marketing out there, one is led to believe that physical health is what it is ALL about.
Maybe mental health comes to mind, especially post-pandemic. Life seems to be harder to navigate. Thankfully, the stigma is lifting. Counseling offices are full, and many have long wait lists as people seek to become mentally & emotionally healthy.
However, when Jesus told us to love God with ALL of ourselves and then to love our neighbor, do we correlate that to be a benchmark of our health? Have you ever considered that BEING HEALTHY includes your whole person? We are more than physical beings. God gave us a mind, heart, spirit, and created us for relationship(s), starting with our Creator.
What is Health?
Health, according to the World Health Organization is- “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity”. Eastern medicine tends to view health more holistically and views it as an approach to life. “Rather than focusing on illness or specific parts of the body, this ancient approach considers the whole person and how he or she interacts with his or her environment. It emphasizes the connection of mind, body, and spirit”.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.”
I Corinthians 6:19-20
I attended a conference in 2013 and participated in a breakout session called “Healthy Leaders, Healthy Ministries”. The speaker was a registered nurse who worked in community health and volunteered at a non-profit ministry.
She talked about maintaining our temple which is not exclusive to our bodies, but rather integrates our entire being. We are to maintain our whole self which contains the basic Five Pillars of Health – Spiritual, Physical, Mental/Intellectual, Emotional, and Social/Relational.
THE FIVE PILLARS OF HEALTH
SPIRITUAL
PHYSICAL
MENTAL/INTELLECTUAL
EMOTIONAL
SOCIAL/RELATIONAL
Each pillar is important. Health should be pursued in each not only for the purpose of feeling better, but to model wise and balanced lives to those around us, as well. Ultimately, we pursue health to serve the Lord better and honor Him.
We will discuss each of the health pillars in the following posts, but first, we will begin with our spiritual health. As Christ followers, we are talking about our relationship with the true God of the Bible. (I John 5:20 ESV)
Many philosophies and practices which are promoted for spiritual health and well-being are contrary to God and His word. However, having and maintaining a connection to a “higher power” remains consistent, through all, including Christianity. This spiritual connection is what gives meaning and purpose to life and helps to determine values, beliefs, and morality. I came across an article that stated the following:
“Most of the experts who participated in the current study recognized human connection with God as the most important part of the definition of spiritual health and also stated that human connection with God is the most important component and indicator of spiritual health.”
Ghaderi A, Tabatabaei SM, Nedjat S, Javadi M, Larijani B. Explanatory definition of the concept of spiritual health: a qualitative study in Iran. J Med Ethics Hist Med. 2018 Apr 9;11:3. PMID: 30258553; PMCID: PMC6150917.
Created for Connection
In Genesis 2:7 we read, … “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” The creation of mankind had two facets. First, God formed our physical bodies out of the substances He had already created. There was a connection with mankind that was not present with the rest of creation. He spoke everything else into existence.
Secondly, He breathed into us. His breath made us living, physical, rational and spiritual beings. This connection to our Creator causes us to be different from all of creation. He chose us to bear the image of God (Gen 1:27).
Spirit [ spir-it ] the vital principle in humans, animating the body or mediating between body and soul. From Latin spiritus, literally, breath, from spirare to blow, breathe. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach, which means “wind, breath, air, spirit.” The ancient Greek word pneuma for “breath”, and in a religious context for “spirit”
However, the Fall severed the perfect, healthy connection with our Creator. Once sin entered the world, it became unhealthy, and we became spiritually dead. As a result, we all suffer the consequences of living in the physical presence of sin.
Thankfully, God in His goodness and love made a way back for us through His son Jesus Christ-The Way, The Truth, and The Life! Yet, each person must choose to restore this connection, or forever be separated from God. When we acknowledge our sin and accept His gift of salvation the Holy Spirit makes us spiritually alive. (Titus 3:5; John 3:5-8)
Spiritually Alive ≠ Spiritually Healthy
“The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. We have almost forgotten that God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can.”
A.W. Tozer
We are spiritually alive…but is that enough? No, it is not. Any relationship requires commitment, time, intentionality, and effort to maintain a sense of connectedness. Our relationship with God is no different. Believers should:
Read, study, and grow in our knowledge of the “God-breathed” words of the Bible (2 Tim 3:16-17)
Attend, fellowship & serve in a local church (Acts 2:42-47; I Cor 12:28; Heb 10:25)
Share the gospel & make disciples (Matt 28:18-20)
However, we often compartmentalize our spiritual health and equate it to religious activity or measure it by our biblical knowledge. These are important aspects of spiritual life, but our doing must come from healthy motivations. Our lives should show they are being impacted and changed as we are applying what we know. As Pastor Carlos always says, “We don’t come to church to worship, we bring our worship to church.”
Maintaining Our Connection
Jesus tells us that a healthy tree will bear good fruit (Matthew 7:17) and in in John 15:5 He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” He is telling us that BEING CONNECTED to Him is our goal. Healthy fruit will come as a result. When we fail to maintain and pursue this connection, we become self-dependent and not dependent on God, leading to a feeling of spiritual emptiness.
In his book Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas talks about the different ways we can connect with God based on our spiritual temperaments. Just as one prescription does not cure all illness, God uses more than one type of “Quiet Time” to fuel and feed our spirit. God has created each of us uniquely. He connects with us corporately, yet personally. “God wants to know the real you, not a caricature of what somebody else wants you to be. He created you with a certain personality and spiritual temperament. God wants your worship, according to the way he made you.”
Healed = Spiritually Healthy
Our connection with God- getting to know Him, being still, experiencing His presence, and then yielding to the sanctifying and healing work of the Holy Spirit, is the most important aspect for our overall health. This includes how we relate to others. Dr. Shane Wood, professor of New Testament studies at Ozark Christian College, has said, “If you don’t know how to connect with the image of God in you, then you will overlook the image of God in others.”
Sin still affects all of us. The brokenness and wounds we all carry need the healing of our Great Physician. It is impossible to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind if we are not bringing the unhealthy parts of ourselves into His loving presence to receive His redeeming touch. Commitment, intentionality, and discipline are required to ensure we are maintaining and tending to our spiritual health. Getting to know God better helps us know ourselves better. We become who we were created to be. We are transformed.
“The Bible was not given for our information but our transformation.”
D.L. Moody
Our spiritual health is not separate from the other areas of health. It is integral. So then, if we do not allow God’s Truth to permeate our WHOLE being- mind, emotions, attitudes, and how we relate to others, we are not being real with God, and thereby hinder our growth and redemptive healing in those areas, as well. We will not be healthy.
As we move forward discussing the remaining pillars, keep in mind the spiritual aspect integrated into each. Let us honor God with our temple… ALL of it.
“It is not the number of books you read, nor the variety of sermons you hear, nor the amount of religious conversation in which you mix, but it is the frequency and earnestness with which you meditate on these things till the truth in them becomes your own and part of your being, that ensures your growth. “
