By CHRIS FIELDS
Chris and Kristen Fields, co-founders of H.E.A.L. Mississippi (Healthy Eating Active Living)
As Christians, our go-to prayer is the Lord’s Prayer. It’s always being recited, whether corporately during church services, in the home among family, or individually. It’s recited on television, written on postcards — it’s all over the place! We used to say it in the locker room before games for whatever reason, like it was going to enable us to win, as if our opposing team wasn’t also saying it in their locker room to help them win.
Memorizing the Lord’s Prayer is like the first thing we do after we accept Jesus, and some people know it even before they know Jesus. I remember a time when my brother stumbled through the words while praying it over our family, and my mom got so mad that she cut him off mid-prayer and eyed him like he was a blasphemer.
In all seriousness, Jesus used this prayer to teach His disciples to pray, but the message of the prayer is rooted in action, not just words. The prayer was meant to solicit a response from heaven based on our willful acts of submission and obedience to the Lord’s will here on earth. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed (or greatly honored and revered, which can only be done through willful submission and obedience) be thy name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I will stop here, because that last line is what I want to focus on.
One of the main things we think about attaining in heaven is perfect health, especially for individuals who live their lives with disease. But as the Lord’s Prayer says, He wants His will to be done on earth just as it is in heaven, so He’s made healing just as attainable now as any other promise, if not more so, right down to the air we breathe.
I know a lot of times when we think of air, we think of toxicity, but we also consume oxygen from air, which is an essential nutrient that fuels the heart. The Lord in His infinite knowledge and wisdom created an environment for humanity to live in perfect health.
When we think about all the healing agents of the “good” foods we consume, and the wonderful benefits of physical activity, exercise and stress-free living (Paul hit the nail on the head when he said it’s better for people to stay single because a lot of married folks stressed each other out), we should think of how we were created and how everything was created for us, not by us.
When we think of advancements in medicine, we should think of God’s grace and mercy and how He created an environment for us to thrive and heal in. Nothing God created is manmade — it’s only discovered — and true enough, man had to be smart enough to discover it, but man’s intellect is not absent of God’s omniscience. Medicine has rapidly advanced, along with the knowledge of how to care for our physical health. But God’s will must still be done via our willful submission and obedience.
Well, how do I submit to Him so His will of physical health and wholeness can be made available to me here on Earth? Good question. Submission requires knowledge and understanding before anything. The Bible tells us that if we seek Him, we will find Him, but knowing where to look for Him sometimes seems to elude us. God is in His creation. His imprint, trademark and patent are all over it. Since we are His created beings, learning yourself and your body is the first step to submission. Here are some steps:
◼ Know your current health status. The thing with most diseases is, they can lie dormant and go undetected for years before your body tells you something is wrong, and by that time, minor has turned to major and reversible has turned to irreversible.
◼ Know your family health history. This allows you to take steps to reduce your risk of developing disease and can improve medical treatment if needed.
There are plenty of other points I can give, but those two often go neglected. They provide a solid foundation, because if I don’t know how I am (or was) disobedient, I won’t know how to obey.
Chris Fields is the founder and executive director of H.E.A.L. Mississippi and a graduate in kinesiology with advance studies in nutrition. He serves as a clinical exercise physiologist/CPT and is credentialed in Exercise Is Medicine through American College of Sports Medicine.
