“The” Secret to Better Health

“In The Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient, Norman Cousins tells of being hospitalized with a rare, crippling disease.  When he was diagnosed as incurable, Cousins checked out of the hospital.  Aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the body, Cousins reasoned that the reverse was true.  So he borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment, consisting of Marx Brothers films and old "Candid Camera" reruns.  It didn't take long for him to discover that 10 minutes of laughter provided two hours of pain free sleep.  Amazingly, his debilitating disease was eventually reversed.  After the account of his victory appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Cousins received more than 3,000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world” (Today in the Word, MBI, December 18, 1991).

It really is amazing what a change in attitude can do for us.  Cousins went from “incurable” with negative emotions, to “completely cured” because of laughter and positive emotions.  Many studies have shown that worry, anxiety, and similar negative emotions are very bad for a person’s health.

Similarly, God has told us things like, “Be anxious for nothing…” (Philippians 4:6), and “Do not worry…” (Matthew 6:31).  When the Lord commanded these things it wasn’t just because He wants us to trust and rely on Him, He was sharing with us the secret to better health.  Trusting and relying on God is actually good for us!

No one should be more happy, worry free, and at ease in life than a Christian who trusts in the Lord.  As Paul stated so well, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).  For Christians, the end of this life simply means eternity in heaven.  What an encouraging and stress reducing statement!

The benefits of trusting and having a relationship with the Lord are limitless, but it’s nice to know that it is actually healthy for us to be close with Him.  This only leaves us with one question: Have we been full of worry and anxiety, or have we been putting our trust in the Lord?