Why is spiritual well-being a necessary part of human well-being?

Song (click to listen): Jesus, you’re the center of my joy. All that’s good and perfect comes from you. You’re the heart of my contentment the hope for all I do. Jesus, You’re the center of my joy. When I’ve lost my direction, you’re the compass for my way. You’re the fire and light when nights are long and cold. In sadness, you are my laughter, that shatters all of my fears, when I’m all alone your hand is there to hold. Jesus, you’re the center of my joy. All that’s good and perfect comes from you. You’re the heart of my contentment the hope for all I do. Jesus, you’re the center of my joy. 

What does Christian spirituality have to do with health?

Christianity is a spiritual religion. The kingdom of God is not an earthly kingdom. Spirituality, in Christianity, can be thought of like food for the soul or food for the heart. Not physical heart or emotional heart but the center of a person’s being. Spiritual food of this nature is food that provides purpose and life-giving promise. [John 6:35]

In Christianity, the spiritual food that provides purpose and life-giving promise is belief in Jesus. Jesus says, “I am the bread that brings life” [John 6:35]. Or belief in Jesus is food you consume that brings life. Belief in the spiritual nature of Jesus is life supporting. To believe in Jesus is to believe in life after death, but while on earth to believe in Jesus is to believe in spiritual life and a spiritual power and an all-powerful God who has dominion over everything.

What does Jesus mean when he says that he is the bread that brings life? Or what is this life-giving promise that believers have in Jesus? Jesus is the gift of God who came from heaven to save the world and is modeled after a promise God revealed to the Children of Israel while they were in the wilderness when God had delivered them from their captivity in Egypt. In John 6:32 Jesus says, while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, “Moses did not feed your forefathers manna from heaven, God did.” [John 6:32] Physically this provision, manna, kept the children of Israel from starving. Spiritually, Jesus is saying that when there is no provision to save, God saves, through Jesus and he is the bread of heaven that has come from God to bring life to the world. Why? To prove that people do not survive because they eat physical food but because God, through Jesus is provision. His promise of salvation, saves, provides and physically and spiritually feeds.

Belief in the spiritual nature of God means that you believe that healthy eating, exercise or access to finances and doing what is right is not what gives health or saves you from physical or spiritual death and starvation, only God through Jesus does. This belief means that any and every good thing you have comes from God, in times of plenty and even during wilderness times. God’s riches are Jesus. God’s will is also Jesus [John 6:38-40]. God’s will, as in the inheritance that you receive as a believer in Jesus, is Jesus, the one who saves. When Jesus says he is the bread that brings life he is speaking of himself as spiritual food and provider of physical food that satisfies more than physical desires, pleasures, longings, needs and hunger. Jesus is the bread and spiritual food that is more sustaining than food, more nourishing than a good meal.

Why is spiritual health a necessary component of health? Jesus’ life-giving provision is food that does not spoil. Jesus says not to spend your life working for food that spoils [John 6:27], because we as believers deserve more than what the scientific world of health provides. Jesus says that everything God has given Jesus is his, and God has given Jesus dominion over everything so the food that Jesus gives satisfies more than food we eat to sustain our physical bodies [John 6:37].

Why is spiritual health a necessary component of health? Because of the benefits belief and faith in Jesus provides. What are those benefits? In Psalms 103 it says bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits. The benefits of belief are access to a mercy and authority beyond the understanding of human justice, a spiritual judge who in verse one it says “forgives.”  Forgives what? All of your sins [Psalms 103:1]. A benefit of belief in Jesus is forgiveness. The benefits of belief in Jesus do not end with forgiveness, to believe in Jesus is to believe in a power greater than eastern medicine, modern medicine and nutrition to heal. In verse two it says God in Jesus “heals”. Heals what? All of your diseases [Psalms 103:2]. Diseases of the mind, body and spirit. A benefit of belief in Jesus is healing. The benefits of belief in Jesus is also to have access to a safety net more secure than wealth or policing, more secure than your closest relatives, more secure than walls to protect, and this security in Jesus has the power to in verse three it says “redeem”. Redeem what? Your life from destruction [Psalms 103:3]. This power is given from God to Jesus and available to all who believe on him that he forgives, heals and saves. Why does God provide these benefits to believers? In verse four it says because of his love and compassion [Psalms 103:4]. Christianity is a religion about a God who loved and gave a precious gift of love and that gift is Jesus. To believe in Jesus is to believe that you as a believer have a spiritual inheritance, that you are a child of the King of Kings and his reward to his children is an outpouring of love and a crown of compassion that satisfies your desires, it says in verse five, in a way that cannot be complete through eating and drinking or any other human consumption and his satisfaction also renews [Psalms 103:5]. The spiritual benefits of believing in the gift of Jesus do not end with forgiveness, salvation and healing. Psalms 103 continues to share who God is to believers. A judge who brings justice for oppressed [Psalms 103:6]. A God who does not keep secrets but reveals his ways to believers [Psalms 103:7]. A judge that forgives [Psalms 103:8], does not accuse [Psalms 103:9] does not hold grudges, does not remain angry or deal with humanity in anger [Psalms 103:10], does not treat us according to what our sins say that we deserve to be treated [Psalms 103:11]. A God who loves and whose love if it could be calculated is greater than heaven is above the earth [Psalms 103:11]. A God who forgives and removes our sins so far from us that if the space between humanity and its sin could be calculated is greater than the east is from the west. God completely removes the association of sin, an impossible distance, and everyone who believes in Jesus has access to forgiveness. In verse 13 God is a God who is like a compassionate father [Psalms 103:13]. He is a God whose love is everlasting, never ending, something spiritual, infinity, that humanity cannot comprehend only the spirit can [Psalms 103:17]. Spiritual health is a wealth beyond human understanding and yet accessible through belief in Jesus.

Prayer: Father God, thank you for the gift of your son Jesus. Your word that brings life and that has been made real and accessible to all. Give me this spiritual healing and spiritual health. Help me to seek you first. To hunger after and thirst after your wisdom. Help me to look to you for salvation before looking to anything or anyone else because you have the words that are true and bring life. Bring this spiritual life to my life and help me to understand how great you are and the inheritance that I as a believer have access to because of Jesus, the bread of life.