Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why our health matters. Our current choice of reading is “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” by Jim Cymbala. We are posting updates through the PHW Facebook page, but our PHW blog page has the discussion posts in full with responses from staff. Just look for the apple on top of the book picture among the blog post pictures and you will find past Book Club entries.
After an unexpected break, we are now on Chapter Two. Please forgive that I have missed the last few weeks. It has been for really great reasons. I had an excellent event with the Regional Youth Conference; I hope you will check out that blog. And then, I went to an amazing conference regarding food and faith. And I co-hosted an event in Cumberland County about support for pregnant women.
Now we are back. The focus of this journey is using prayer to revive our perspective on health. Cymbala summarizes this chapter for me with these words at its beginning, “If we call upon the Lord, he has promised in his Word to answer, to bring the unsaved to himself, to pour out his Spirit among us. If we don’t call upon the Lord, he has promised nothing—nothing at all. It’s as simple as that. No matter what I preach or what we claim to believe in our heads, the future will depend upon our times of prayer.”
I am encouraged that even my health struggles are important to The King Most High. And knowing how much I struggle to be healthy, and to practice healthy habits, I want all the help I can get. My Redeemer has said that the Holy Spirit will offer self-control as a fruit for me abiding within the Lord’s love.
I am using prayer currently to change my health habits. I have prayed countless times to be able to sleep at a decent hour. I still have not gotten there, but I keep praying for a change. And I will keep trying to make my bedtime until I get it right. I challenge you to pray to the Lord as you go through your health successes and health challenges.
Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive them of their sins and heal the land.”
Questions:
1) What are big circumstances that the Lord has changed in your life?
2) What is the smallest matter that you have brought to the Lord through prayer to change, and you saw an answer to it?
3) Please share a health concern where the Lord is encouraging you to continue to bring before the Throne of Mercy.
–Joy Williams, PHW Regional Consultant
Partners in Health and Wholeness is an initiative of the North Carolina Council of Churches. PHW aims to connect health as a faith issue. Please visit our website to sign your personal pledge to be healthier, and to find out about grant opportunities for places of worship in NC.