In Pursuit of Peace: 21 Ways to Conquer Anxiety, Fear, and Discontentment by Joyce Meyer

Author:Joyce Meyer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Religion, Christian Life, General
ISBN: 9780446531955
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2004-09-06T22:00:00+00:00

PEACEKEEPER #12

Protect Your Health

No matter what people own in life or what their positions are, if their health is not good, they will not enjoy anything. Good health is one of the greatest treasures we have; it is a gift from God. The psalmist wrote, “Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits—Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each one of] all your diseases” (Psalm 103:2-3).

The apostle John wrote, “Beloved, I would that you prosper and be in health, even as I know your soul prospers” (see 3 John 1:2). We should do all we possibly can to protect our health, both physically and emotionally. It is sad to see people in our society regularly abuse their bodies and then wonder why they get sick.

I have discovered that it is much harder for me to remain peaceful under any kind of opposition if I also have the added stress of not feeling well. If I am really tired, it is more difficult for me to get along with people or display the fruit of the Spirit.

I have had long periods of time in my life of not feeling well, and I have heard the doctors say over and over, “You are under stress.” Their diagnosis always frustrated me because I did not know how to live any way other than under stress. I thought I had no choice except to do all the things I was doing, even though I often admitted, “I can’t do all this. It is too much.”

Stress-related illnesses are rampant. I asked Dr. Don Colbert, a nutrition expert whom I greatly respect, to share how stress affects our health and nerves. He wrote, “Approximately 75-90% of all visits to primary-care physicians are for stress-related disorders. Chronic stress has actually been linked to most of the leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis, and suicide.”

Dr. Colbert agrees that individuals must learn to protect themselves against stress, saying,

Few people realize that the fast-paced lives they are living, the increasing demands on their schedules, and the way that they cope or react to stress or stressful situations are all in their control. Yes, we all have a choice to continue this hectic schedule; we can choose to react by becoming more and more frustrated, or we can learn to limit the demands on our everyday lives and react in love rather than frustration.

The following excerpt from Dr. Colbert is a report he shared with me of how the Canadian physician Hans Selye accidentally discovered the effects of stress on the physical body.

Selye’s vision was not to discover the effects of stress but to discover the next new female sex hormone. He had made an extract from ovaries and injected the extract solution into rats. However, Selye was not very skillful with his injection techniques. He always dropped the rats and spent much of the morning chasing the rodents around the room, using a broom to get them out from behind a desk or a sink.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.