Written by Shannon, Contributing Writer
All year long we are inundated with advertisements, marketing campaigns, and articles that try to teach us how to be healthier. At the New Year this wellness parade reaches a fevered pitch with resolutions being made and everyone trying to undo the overindulgence of the past month.
And then there is that word “wellness” used by all sorts of alternative and mainstream medicine camps. Some of these camps define wellness as the absence of disease. Others claim it is some sort of feeling of overall health in body, mind, and spirit. Still others are constantly seeking and promoting “longevity”.
What Is Missing?
What a lot of this does, particularly that last one, is to leave God’s sovereignty out of the picture. What peace there is in knowing that God knows the moment of our birth, our death, and the contents of every day in between.
So does that mean that we eat, drink, and live however indulgently we’d like because we are not the ones determining the day of our death?
The short answer is no.
We will not extend our life unless it is God’s will. We will not live disease-free unless it is God’s will. God is sovereign over all matters of life, death, and health. And He is to be praised in all of the above.
Living (and eating) in Accordance with His Will
But we do have responsibilities. God is a God of order. He has created foods that are designed to nourish the body. These are foods without labels – foods from the ground and properly stewarded animals. Foods that glorify God and not man.
In writing Simple Food {for winter} it became more evident than ever just how intertwined the nourishment of the body and God’s command to “study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you” are. When we are not living simply in connection to our every day sustenance, we can not properly nourish our bodies or our minds.
When you cut out the middle man and count on God’s provisions directly from the soil, it is Him that is glorified. And so perhaps it is in that pursuit of Him and a simpler life that we can define wellness.
How do you define wellness?
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Nice article… Reminded me of the email that has circulated for so long…
‘God’s Pharmacy’ and so true… as he did provide for us in our foods, water, and I also add the ‘Living Clay’ which is also a natural source of helping us maintain a healthy body with our natural immune systems working as they should….
thanks for a ‘good read’…paul
Absolutely! It’s all about the realization that your body is a vessel, God’s vessel, for bringing him to others. You need to put into your body pure and wholesome things (physically, mentally, spiritually) in order to honor Him and his gift of life to you. My husband and I teach this concept to our patients and community every day. It is so important! 🙂
Thank you, Shannon, for this wonderful reminder. At the age of fifty, after many physical difficulties from eating the SAD diet for so long, God shepherded me into eating a diet of the real food He created for man’s nourishment. Within 2 months, my health took a dramatic turn for the better. It caused me to really thank Him for the first time in my life for the food I was eating, realizing how incredibly good He is to give it, amazed and fascinated at the mouth-watering, yet healing qualities inherent in each bite.
Thank you also for acknowledging that the sovereign God is overall in the matters of our health. I know that He can will whatever for me, including cancer and that it is ultimately for my good and His glory. But for now, He has given me health, both spiritually and physically and I thank Him for that. When my physical health declines, I will continue to thrive however, because of His grace and mercy to me.
“Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” Habakuk 3:17-18
excellent post shannon!
it’s taken me a while to get to this point in my life…. my definition of wellness is how i feel mentally. if i don’t eat properly – and for some reason i’ve found that i have to take extra caution with my food choices than most, hence our real food diet – then i don’t feel well physically or mentally. i know, mentally, when i’ve made a food choice that isn’t correct for me, even if i don’t immediately have physical symptoms. i think i could have a cold and not feel great physically but still feel wellness mentally as i try to strengthen my body to fight off the cold. i’m still learning so much about this so it’s difficult for me to find the words to explain and describe… 🙂
Thank you for the this article. I really enjoyed it since this is what I have been trying to tell the important people in my life. Why do so many Christians allow God to be the Lord in all things except their food? It is challenging and a narrow path in doing his will, but, oh, the benefits abound in health of the mind and body!