The Strong Temple

From Chapter 1:

Session One

lessings of Wellness

Think about your childhood. How sick did you have to be to stay in bed and miss school?

a) Mom let me take “sick of school” days.

b) I had to have a slight fever to get out of class.

c) If I wasn’t deathly ill, I had to go.

d) Other:

Personal wellness, that is, generally good health sought by intention, is a matter that impacts everybody. Many people, however, give the topic little thought until sickness, injury, or a poor medical report force the issue. While Scripture focuses on the importance of building our spiritual health, it also offers wonderful insights and wisdom about the value of taking responsibility for our bodies.

Read John 5:1-9 below.

The Healing at the Pool

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

What was the paralytic’s excuse for not getting well? How did Jesus deal with his complaint?

Notice that Jesus gave the man at the pool something to do. In this I see an indicator that the Lord wanted him to take responsibility for his own life and, to a point, his own healing. While the man seemed to think that wellness was entirely outside of his control (“I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me”), noting he had no one to help him, Jesus prompted him to take action. In responding to Jesus’ command to “get up,” the man agreed to do what he could to move toward wholeness. Healing, of course, came through the Lord’s intervention. But it is the man’s willing participation that most speaks to me when I read this story.

We, too, must take action in order to keep ourselves healthy. We must take responsibility for our bodies. This study is designed to provide you with information on how to make wise decisions that can significantly improve your health. I believe that the key to personal wellness is to take up our beds and walk, in a sense—to recognize that when it comes to losing weight, lowering cholesterol, or even reducing our risks for cancer, we must do all we can.

What practical steps might you take today toward pursuing personal wellness?

Before we go further, let’s pause and read Romans 12:1. This passage sheds light on why wellness is important for the Christian in particular: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

In this verse, the apostle Paul reminds readers that the Christian’s body is not something completely separate from his soul. God made Adam with a body and a soul. When we commit our lives to serving Christ, we are not merely signing up for a spiritual experience. Instead, we are meant to live our physical lives in service to the Creator. First, this means we must avoid indulging our flesh in sin. Just as importantly, we must spend our lives telling others about His good news (John 3:16; Acts 1:8). But this assignment requires energy, and our energy reserves can be greatly depleted through poor choices regarding our health.

Underline examples of how you could “offer your body” as a “living sacrifice,” that is, as an act of worship.

Visit a sick friend at the hospital.

Refuse to listen to sexually explicit jokes and stories.

Take the kids on a hike, using it as an opportunity to tell them about Jesus’ love.

Plan a dinner date with your wife.

Go on a mission trip to build a church in a third world country.

Run a marathon to raise money for cancer research.

Avoid using coarse language or swearing.

All of the above answers are examples of how we can offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Ideally, we want to pursue a lifestyle of selflessness, but that can be an overwhelming thought. I think it helpful, then, to create slogan that we can remember when we’re tempted to forget about the importance of living so purposefully. Companies and organizations spend a great deal of time and money creating mission statements, brief expressions meant to guide them in the future and to help them stay on course. Consider the following examples:

Helping all people live healthy lives (BD Medical)

Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world (NIKE, Inc.)

Mission statements bring clarity to the purpose of the organizations behind them. But what is your mission? How would you sum up your core beliefs, desires, and aspirations for your life? Don’t worry about your wording yet. Simply jot down a few thoughts here.