Many years ago I read a book by Rex Russell called “What the Bible says about healthy living”, and it created a longing in me, to learn all I could about being healthy in body, soul and spirit. I’ve been studying and learning whatever I could, since this started, and I’m pretty sure it will continue until I go home to Jesus. So, it was bound to come out in my blog at one point or another : )
Body, soul and spirit
God wants us to be well. But not only that, He wants us to be strong and thriving in every area of our lives. The stronger we are, the more we can accomplish for Him in this life. Of course His grace is sufficient, and who we are, is always more important to God, than what we do. But He does have a plan for our lives. Places He knows we will thrive, and things that will help us as we go into all the world to make disciples. (Matt 28,19).
We are all made up of three parts, a body, a soul and a spirit. Our soul is also made up of three parts, our mind, our emotions and our will. As a whole person we are only as strong, as the place where we are weakest. If we have a physically weak body – even if it might not always be our own fault – it can keep us from doing things for Him. If we have a weak soul, our emotions, mind and will, might be too scared or too weak to choose His way. And if we haven’t spent any time learning from and being filled with His Spirit and reading His word, our spirit will not be attentive to His voice when He speaks to us.
This blog is mostly about becoming stronger in our soul. It speaks to our mind, as to what we choose to think about, and allow ourselves to dwell on. It speaks to our emotions, because they always follow where our thoughts go. And it is all about our will. We have a choice to follow His ways to joy, or go our own and see what happens.
But our body, soul and spirit overlap. We might have a strong spirit and body, but if we have a weak soul full of fear and selfishness, it might stop us from doing His will. In the same way the good can also overlap. A strong spirit can get rid of fear in our soul. And a joyful heart can bring strength to our body.
Healthy living
I follow an online trainer named Cassey Ho, who wrote a blog post about dieting recently. Most people think about two things, when it comes to losing weight – how much they exercise and what they eat. But there are actually two other things that are just as important. The first one is sleep. Do we get enough sleep? I knew about that one already. But the fourth thing that is important to live healthy and lose weight is joy! How often do we hear people talk about that, when they talk about weight loss? Our bodies just don’t work well or effectively, if we are stressed, depressed or sad. It throws us off balance, because we were never meant to live like that.
I love when scientists and research discovers something God has already said in the Bible. One of my favorite verses is a verse from Proverbs that describes this principle:
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” Pro 17:22
This is exactly what Cassey talked about in her blog. To be effective and live a healthy life, joy is just as important as exercise, food and sleep. And as I’ve mentioned earlier on, joy makes our yoke easy and our burden light. So the quest for the joy of the Lord is not a one-time thing, or even a one-season thing. It’s a lifetime thing.
Digging into joy and discovering all the reasons why God wants us to be joyful, has been amazing. And I have to tell you, going public with a blog called ‘Rejoice Always’ has held me to a higher standard in finding and keeping joy every day. It’s not my own personal journey with God anymore. You keep me accountable and I want to thank you for that. I’m glad we are on this journey together, and I pray that my discoveries and experiences inspire you. Feel free to reach out any time, if you have questions or I can pray for you and your journey. Let’s keep walking in His glorious joy together and become a strong people for Him – body, soul and spirit!
