Bones
by Dr. Wade Lachman
Having Healthy Bones:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own
understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct
your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart
from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your
bones.” – Proverbs 3:5-8
“The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and a good report makes
the bones healthy.” – Proverbs 15:30
“Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and
health to the bones.” – Proverbs 16:24
“A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries
the bones.” –Proverbs 17:22 (NKJV)
Bones represents your whole being. When the Bible speaks of health to
the bones, it is stating that your whole being will be healthy. Your
bones are the foundation to your physical being. Blood is created in
the center of the bone and the Bible states that the life is in the
blood, as we have seen. Thus, your very life force, your blood, finds
its origin in your bones. To have healthy bones is to be healthy.
Notice that in the above scriptures the health of our bones is
dependent upon our attitudes – our trust in God. Healthy bones come
when we first trust and fear the Lord. Having faith in God and His
ways becomes the root to our health. Pleasant words and a good report
also produce healthy bones. Yet, how often do we speak harsh and
critical words – words of anger and bitterness? Do we allow our
thoughts to be those of the good report or do we long to hear that
word of scandal? Do we live a life of trusting God or are we worried
and anxious about everything?
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your
gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for
nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of
God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are
true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever
things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of
good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy--meditate on these things. – Philip. 4:4-8 (NKJV)
The Bible says that a merry heart is like medicine to us. It gives us
strong healthy bones. Often, the sinful root of our disease comes from
failing to take heed to these principles. We are bitter rather than
forgiving – anxious and pessimistic rather than being filled with
faith and hope. Such violations against a tranquil and peaceful
mindset, a mind that trust and hopes in God, directly attacks the
foundation of our health. Our bones become brittle.
Modern medicine identifies this degeneration of our health caused by
the worry and bitterness as psychosomatic diseases. Many today
misunderstand the complexity of psychosomatic disease. Our thoughts,
indeed our faith, have a direct relationship to our health. Our health
also has a direct impact upon our thoughts. Jack Leahy, in Controlling
the Mind, says that according to medical specialists, perhaps as much
as 80 percent of human problems involve psychosomatic disease, either
totally or as a contributing factor. Having an optimistic mindset,
having faith, goes a long way toward maintaining health.
Psychosomatic disorders:
There is an interaction between the mind and the body -- the psyche
and the soma. This relationship works both ways: the mind can affect
the health of the body and the body can affect the tranquility of the
mind. Poor nutrition can create mental stress. As we have seen, the
spiritual condition of a person is reflected in their state of mind
and their state of mind can affect the health of the body. Abram
Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. and Morton Walker, D.P.M. in their work on
Orthomolecular Nutrition discuss psychosomatic disease: “The original
term psychosomatic referred to the interrelation between the psyche
and the soma – between the mind and the body. It was coined in an
attempt to bridge the gap in thinking between two types of scientist,
the pure somaticist and the pure psychologist. Psychosomatic disease
works both ways. Pathology in the body can cause mental symptoms and
problems in the mind can cause physical symptoms.”
In practice, the term was soon taken over by the psychodynamic or
psychological school. Psychologists believe that it is the psyche that
predominates for a series of psychosomatic conditions such as peptic
ulcer, ulcerative colitis, hyperthyroidism, arthritis and other
conditions. Gradually, psychosomatic has become a one-way term. The
role of physiological factors in producing disease of the mind is
being almost totally ignored in favor of a series of psychological
ideas based primarily upon psychoanalytic theory in one form or
another.
This one-way thinking has entered into Christian circles as well. The
believer tends to think that his mental state might have an effect
upon his body’s health but he does not believe that his diet can
affect his mental balance. People come in for pastoral counseling to
deal with an anger problem. All the while, the root of that problem is
hypoglycemia or hyper-insulinemia. The condition of the body has its
effect upon the mind.
The Bible gives an account of nutrition affecting behavior in the
story of Esau and Jacob. “Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in
from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed
me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was
called Edom. But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.”
And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to
me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to
him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.” – Genesis 25:29-33
Hoffer says of this story: “Esau probably suffered from severe
hypoglycemia and knew that a protein-rich soup made from lentils
(beans) would restore him to health. His feeling that he would die was
motive enough to force him to sell his birthright. He wanted to live.
This is an excellent account of the powerful drive in people, when
they have hypoglycemia, to consume what will elevate their blood sugar
levels.”
Esau was not thinking clearly because he had low blood sugar. This
produced a negative impact upon his spiritual life. Our biochemical
environment, our nutritional intake, is a foundation to psychosomatic
disorders – the body affecting the mind. Most communities of faith
have their fellowship times around food items that deplete the
nutrition from its members. Caffeine, sugar snacks like donuts, and
refined flour and pasta dinners can produce such hypoglycemic
conditions as to affect the mental state of the faith community. The
church fight was more the result of a high carbohydrate dinner with
sugary foods preceding the meeting, which caused a spike and then a
severe drop in blood sugar, than it was from the minor disagreements
on policy.
Not only does nutrition affect our mental well-being and health, but
our thoughts directly affect our body. Having a merry heart (pleasant,
joy filled thoughts) does good like a medicine. Morter says: “Your
body reacts to negative mental and emotional stress brought about by
thoughts exactly the same way it reacts to “real” threats of physical
harm. To the subconscious that governs physiology, stimuli from ideas
are just as “real” as stimuli generated by being the target of a
marauding street gang. Thoughts are things that can stimulate
physiological responses – some appropriate for the occasion, some
inappropriate. Physiologists have found that thoughts are so
influential that all you have to do is anticipate exercise for the
sympathetic nervous system to stimulate cardiac output.”
Thus, when we are filled with fear and anxiety due to not casting our
cares upon the Lord (1 Pt. 5:7), we worry due to lack of prayer and
our body responds by producing conditions that will ultimately lead to
poor health. Living a life of faith, on the other hand, will reduce
our stress, fears, anxiety, and worry. Trusting in the Lord indeed
becomes the means to bring health to our bones because such trust will
produce healthy thoughts and destroy the negative ones. The Bible says
that this faith is produced by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). The
Bible itself then becomes a foundation to our health because it is
where faith is built.
The intersection between the physical and spiritual:
To understand the Biblical Foundations of Health, we must be
believers. We must be people of faith. Either you will approach
reality with a naturalistic world view, seeing only the material
universe, or you will be one who embraces the supernatural – faith in
God.
Rene Descartes was a gifted mathematician and scholar born in the
sixteenth century and died in the seventeenth. He depicted (mapped)
the physical world as mechanical, solid, and entirely divorced from
the mind, the only connection between the two being the intervention
of God. Descartes laid the path which guides the therapeutic
excursions of many of today’s physicians. This Cartesian concept of
the duality of mind (conscious thought) and matter (the physical body)
is under serious scrutiny. We tend to eliminate faith, indeed God’s
intervention, from the medical mindset. Dr. Irving Oyle in the Healing
Mind says that materialism is the foundation of today’s medical model:
“Secular Cartesians cannot conceive of any connection between mental
images, insubstantial thoughts (which arise in the human mind) and
palpable solid things (which arise unconsciously). Atheistic
scientific materialism is the foundation of today’s medical model. The
model which binds patient and doctor has eliminated God and Spirit
from Descartes’ reality map. In their place in the scheme of things we
find the doctor and energy.”
Healing, to a scientific materialist, is nothing but mindless
behavior of insensate atoms, the physical body acting under the
influence of an unthinking and impersonal force (energy). The
physician, like the Judeo-Christian priest, is a “significant other”
out there. The doctor has the power (denied to the patient) to invoke
that force, directing it to realign the body’s atoms. The body then
assumes a form we call “healthy” or “healed”.
While priests, rabbis, and shamans consider themselves conduits, many
doctors believe themselves to be, like God, the source of the healing
phenomenon.
We will either believe that all the power for health and wellness
resides with the medical practitioner or we will believe that there is
a power beyond this material world that intervenes. The healing
practitioner, no matter the modality, should see himself as one who
brings the patient into contact with divine intervention. God has
placed a wonderful intelligence within our bodies. The body responds
to its needs to maintain our health. When it is given the correct
resources the body functions optimally. Nutrition, exercise, positive
thoughts, and faith in God and His Word are the recourses needed for a
healthy foundation. To have a true Biblical foundation of health, you
must not remove faith. Prayer for God’s involvement should be at the
core of all healing modalities.
“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let
him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders
of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and
the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be
forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one
another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a
righteous man avails much.” –James 5:13-16
Our health from a Biblical perspective depends upon having faith in
the principles revealed in the Bible. Living a life of faith in God’s
Word involves lifestyle changes, behavioral changes, attitude changes,
heart changes. As we choose to put the Bible at the foundation of our
life we will find health and prosperity. He sent his Word and healed
them.
“Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their
iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food,
and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the
Lord in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. He
sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their
destructions. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His
goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them
sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, And declare His works with
rejoicing.” — Psalm 107:17-22 (NKJV)
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