Heeding?
When I hear that someone is not feeling well, my first reaction and prayer is:
"Lord, please stretch forth Your Healing Hand over him/her."
Recently praying a similar prayer, this thought (& question) crossed my mind:
"Does he/she need healing or heeding?"
Before you burst out thinking (or saying): "How uncompassionate!" hear (rather, read) me out. Someone once said that "Our bodies whisper before they shout..." and I added and/or shut down. Similarly, my husband never tires of saying that our bodies are like elastic/ rubber bands - there is a limit to their elasticity - beyond that they snap. Yes - God forbid!
When you read or listen to health advice you'll notice the focus is our lifestyle especially our diet and rest.
Diet:
Ex 23: 25 says: "“You must serve only the
Lord your God. If you do, I will bless you with food and water, and I will protect you from illness.” (NLT) and Ex 15: 26 says: He said, “If you listen carefully to the
Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep
all his decrees,
I will not bring on you any of the diseases
I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the
Lord, who heals
you.” (NIV)
Ps 107: 20 - He sent out his word and healed them, snatching them from the door of death.*
Studying the Bible, you'll notice that God not only promised to bless their food and water, He was very clear on things His children should or should not eat. For instance, He was clear that they (& we) should not eat meat that still has blood in it.**
The other thing you'll notice from the Bible is that sleep is a blessing from God. Now I'm not judging those who sleep for less than the recommended 8 hours a day like I sometimes do. However, to help me, I've introduced "me-time" for many other reasons including catching up on lost sleep time. Unfortunately some of us sleep for less than 8 hours due to anxiety.
Ps 127: 2 tells us that: It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of [anxious] toil—for He gives [blessings] to His beloved in sleep. (Amplified)
When it comes to sleeping vs. staying awake worrying, aim to be like Mary C. Crowley who said:
“Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway.”
So the next time you're not feeling 100%, ask yourself, "Do I need healing or heeding?"
References:
* NLT
**Gen 9:4 - But life is in the blood, and you must not eat any meat that still has blood in it. (Contemporary English Version)
Now I'm not sure which category today falls into - however every day I'm thankful to God that I have fingers and that I can type...whether or not I want to.
