Be Grateful Instead!
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
(Psalm 100:1-5)
Last night I was praying for God to provide me some home remedies to help my daughter who has asthma and has a cold on top of it that can aggravate the asthma. At this time, she has no insurance for medication as they are once again reviewing her application which can take up to three months, so she has to go without treatment and rely on home remedies and the one inhaler she has for emergencies. When she was ready for bed, I took the anointing oil of hyssop and some scriptures about healing and anointed her head, throat and chest and read the scriptures and prayed for her.
When I went back to my room, I had the radio on and the man being interviewed said “you have to treat the cause, not the symptoms”. I put that at the back of my head and sat down to continue reading the nutritional health book I started before. I looked down at the page and my eyes fell on the following words “you must treat the cause, not the symptoms”. I knew now that the Lord was trying to tell me something. I began to look up spiritual causes for asthma and found many sites had the same causes…fear, anxiety and stress with fear being the number one cause. As I continued reading different sites, I found that there was a doctor in NYC that taught his patients how not to panic when they are under an asthma attack which can lessen the attack. Many understand the connection between the way we think or feel and the illnesses that afflict us. This doesn’t mean we will never be ill, but it is our attitude that can be the deciding factor on getting ill with minor things or healing more quickly.
The Bible has a long list of scriptures that connect our physical well being with our emotions:
A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones. (Proverbs 14:30) (In other versions it states envy is like cancer to the bones)
I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life. (Psalm 119:93)
A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones. (Proverbs 17:22)
A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. (Proverbs 15:13)
There are many scriptures that talk about anxiety and Jesus Himself tells us in Luke 12:29 not to have an anxious mind over what we shall eat or drink. Philippians 4:6 tells us to Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. When people go in for surgery, much depends on their attitudes whether they will heal quickly or not.
It’s easy for us to fall into a negative spirit/attitude when things go wrong or our lives are being tossed around due to problems and circumstances and we reach for the closest things to make ourselves feel better. We can become easily angered, overeat, play games, go shopping but how often do we ever reach for God, who can get us through the circumstance more easily. When a soldier has been captured and becomes a POW, the one thing that is done is to immediately break their spirit so they won’t try to escape. They are told no one is coming for them, no one will help them and are beaten down with words and physical beatings. Isn’t that the same thing the enemy does with us when we encounter problems? He beats us down with negative thoughts and more situations. We can be having a good day and a negative thought can come regarding our past. It’s how we deal with it that can make all the difference in the world.
So how do we overcome? We strengthen ourselves not only with prayer and reading God’s Word but with an attitude of gratitude. We daily remind ourselves of all God has done and will continue to do. We recite out loud what we are grateful for that God has given us or has done for us. We overcome the negative with the positive. If we are ill, we proclaim our promises of good health straight from the scriptures and continue to praise God for that healing until it gets to us. If we are stressed, we pray and remind ourselves that Jesus said not to have an anxious mind. We then find ways where we can de-stress and sometimes that may mean we have to remove extra curricular activities from our lives because we tend to overextend ourselves. On the flip side, if we find ourselves depressed, it may mean we need to get out more because we are not doing enough.
The mind is a powerful tool but an area that is attacked on a daily basis, that is why we must wear the helmet of salvation to protect it and to remind us of our salvation daily. If we can so easily be negative, we can also train ourselves to be positive which will give life to our bodies. Giving life to our bodies also requires following God’s rules and commands as we saw in Psalm 119:93.
When we give God the glory and learn to become grateful for what we have been given, our attitudes will change. In this change, we bring good health to our bodies and spirit or bring a faster healing when we are ill.
Take time out each day to tell God how grateful you are for what He’s done for you and what He’s given to you. Allow this to be your medicine and watch how quickly you become healed both spiritually and physically. It is your positive attitude in gratefulness to God that will get you through the day while you wait for God’s strength and healing.
“Lord, thank you for always hearing my prayers and being there for me in the good times and the bad. Help me to have a more positive and grateful attitude so I can heal both spiritually and physically. I know, Lord, that our bodies wear out, but I cling to your promises of good healthy. Help me to see the good in things and to continue to obey your Word on a daily basis which will preserve my life. I ask this in Jesus name…Amen.”