“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:23, ESV)
When I was in the Army, I had a company commander that stated everything was top priority. It was a nice philosophy, but one that was impractical in every situation. In the midst of all life’s busyness, we must set priorities.
I used this illustration one time in a sermon. It was not an original idea I got it from someone else. I took some rice and partially filled a jar. Then I put some rocks in on top of the rice. The problem was that I could not get all the rocks in the jar. Then I poured out the rice into another container and put the rocks back in the jar. Last I poured in the same amount of rice and it all got into the jar perfectly. The rice filled in all the cracks. The point of the illustration was that if you take care of the big things first, there will be room for the lesser important things.
I believe that this illustration will also apply to total wellness. Paul wrote these words that tell us something vital about the composition of man.
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Man is not just flesh and blood. Paul indicates that we are spirit and soul and body. The construction of the verse indicates that the spirit, soul, and body are connected and inseparable. All are vitally important and all are interrelated. However, in the area of wellness one takes precedence, without which the others lose eternal significance. A person must be well spiritually.
While one’s spiritual health has an eternal perspective, there are also ways in which one’s spiritual health affects the emotional health and may affect the physical health of an individual.
I have spent a lot of time counselling people who are struggling with spiritual issues. Some have been plagued with the oppression of spiritual forces of evil. In every case these people had no rest, and were afflicted with a variety of emotional disorders. Others were overcome by guilt from present sinful behaviors and even past sins committed. These also led to a host of emotional issues. In many cases people’s spiritual and emotional issues will also lead to physiological issues, that is poor physical health.
Now, I am not concluding that all physical and mental issues are a result of someone’s spiritual condition. However, spiritual wellness is essential and primary in one’s total wellness.
In the area of spiritual wellness, the problem is sin and self, and the solution is Jesus. It is by grace through faith in Jesus and His finished work on the cross where He died to pay the penalty of sin for us that we are counted as righteous experience eternal life, and experience deliverance from the power of sin. This frees us from the guilt associated with sin and strengthens us to live in victory.
There are a lot of people in our world today who are ill emotionally and physically because they are not well spiritually. These need help. They need to experience Jesus’, the Great Physician, for spiritual healing in their lives. Then they can move on to seek healing in their emotional and physical issues.
Renewing the Heart 