Just Because You're Not Sick

Just because you're not sick doesn't mean you're healthy. ~Author Unknown

I love this quote. So simple, but so true.

It's like seeing a skinny woman and thinking that she's healthy and fit. Not necessarily true. She may be skinny, but have weak muscles....lacking strength and endurance. And she can have numerous ailments or disease.

A friend's mother would say that "If I ever got cancer, THEN I would eat differently." I think that's the mentality of our western world. We aren't willing to give up our way of eating and living, as long as we aren't aware of some health issue that's big enough to make us take action. Like we are told that we have 6 months to live. Drastic change is finally in order.

In reality, we probably all have health issues, but we think they are normal. We catch colds or flus every fall. We have post-nasal drip all year (might be food allergies to wheat?) or we have seasonal hayfever. We have chronic dry skin patches. Our nails and hair aren't healthy. We don't have several easy bowel movements every single day. Our digestion just doesn't seem to be as good as it used to be. We think achiness is just part of growing old (anytime after 40?) Our eyesight ain't what it used to be. Nor is our hearing.

Yes, we age, but we don't have to be falling apart piece by piece. We could be like Moses:

Deuteronomy 34:7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.

Health is part of our inheritance as the children of God.
3 John 1:2 I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

In Isaiah 53:5 it says that He (Jesus) took the beatings and whippings (the stripes) so that we would be healed. Great health is for us. Not just for the time coming when we are given new heavenly bodies. It is for now. In Isaiah 53 it also says "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;" Yes, just as He was crucified for our sins and transgressions, that we can receive forgiveness NOW, so the healing is for NOW! We can have it NOW!!

It's our inheritance. But just as the Promised Land was the inheritance of God's chosen people, they had to walk in obedience to what God required of them. They couldn't just sit back and expect to wake up one morning in the Land of Promise. They had to work towards that end, always listening to God's instructions.

Well, God has given us instructions in His Word. If we aren't following them, then we may be falling under the curses of Deut 28, or other scriptures, where we aren't living in the fullness of what Jesus died to give us, here and now, and forevermore. Maybe we are allowing our adversary to come and steal, and kill, and destroy us without even recognizing what he is doing, because we just think it is 'normal'. But Jesus says that He came to bring us LIFE, and that LIFE ABUNDANTLY!! Back to Deut 28, there's a list of blessings. But God's blessings for us are for those who follow His commands and statues, and who love Him with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength. There's actually a doing for us, just like the Israelites who didn't sit and wait....they went and fought, and marched, and sang, and worshiped, all as God commanded.


So, God's Word tells us that the plants are to be our food, and our medicine. He tells us what foods aren't good to eat, and he tells us what foods are good to eat. It's all throughout the Books of the Law. In New Testament it says:

1 Corinthians 6:12
"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything."

1 Corinthians 10:23
"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive."

So, no matter what you think of Old Testament Law, isn't the point I want to linger on here. The basic truth is, not everything we do is constructive to us, or it doesn't build us up (ie.,make us healthy). If it isn't building us up, it may very likely (probable) to be undermining us.

I personally believe that God has His reasons why He told the Israelites to eat or sustain from certain foods(and whether science today understands why or not doesn't matter). So, although I may be free to choose otherwise, I think it's foolish to eat what He told His chosen people not to eat. Not because I can't eat it, but because I don't think it's constructive or beneficial. That doesn't mean I have followed all His directions. I haven't. But it makes total sense to me that our health would be far more vibrant if we did!!!

When Paul says, "I will not be mastered by anything" it makes me think of cravings, or bad habits, or obsessions and addictions. Those are clearly things that show that I am NOT in control, but something else is mastering me.