Saying "No" to Sickness
Monday morning, I woke up with a tender pain in my throat every time I swallowed, a slighty congested nose, and a heavy head. I wasn't sick yet, but I could tell it was coming. I thought about the week ahead of me: 4 tests, 2 quizzes, observation hours scheduled, and the World Mission Workshop this weekend. I could not afford to get sick, so I got out of bed, washed my face with warm water, jumped into my clothes, and told myself, you are NOT getting sick.
I carried a water bottle with me all day and drank like a camel in the desert. I told my body over and over again, you are NOT getting sick! I could not afford to get sick, so I consistently thought, acted, and lived like it just wasn't going to happen. I even went to bed early, convincing my body that it would be perfectly fine when I woke up in the morning.
Usually the day after you get that pre-sickness feeling, you wake up with a sore throat, fever, and headache because the illness has finally hit you hard. However, the next morning, I woke up feeling great. My nose was (and still is) a little bit stuffy, but that's all that ever happened. All I did was tell myself that I wasn't going to get sick, and then I lived like I wasn't going to get sick. I know that illness normally doesn't just go away because you tell it to, but I am just reporting what happened to me this week. Call me crazy, but I believe in the power of positive thinking and speaking.
I wonder what would happen if we started to talk to our spiritual illnesses in that way. What if we woke up and felt the downward tug of discouragement on our hearts, but instead of getting sick with it, we told ourselves, dicsouragement will not take hold of me today! What would happen if we told our sins and struggles, you are not going to get me today! We could convince our spirits daily that temptation would not be able to overpower us, and then we would began to live like it actually didn't have the power to do so. I realize that sin and struggle normally don't go away just because we tell them to, but physical illness doesn't normally do that either. Yet it did for me this week, and it makes me wonder if a little more positive talk would make a difference in our spiritual lives, too.
Try it with me this week: start telling your struggles, your sins, your temptations, and your battles, you cannot make me weak today. Then let's try living like we believe it!
I carried a water bottle with me all day and drank like a camel in the desert. I told my body over and over again, you are NOT getting sick! I could not afford to get sick, so I consistently thought, acted, and lived like it just wasn't going to happen. I even went to bed early, convincing my body that it would be perfectly fine when I woke up in the morning.
Usually the day after you get that pre-sickness feeling, you wake up with a sore throat, fever, and headache because the illness has finally hit you hard. However, the next morning, I woke up feeling great. My nose was (and still is) a little bit stuffy, but that's all that ever happened. All I did was tell myself that I wasn't going to get sick, and then I lived like I wasn't going to get sick. I know that illness normally doesn't just go away because you tell it to, but I am just reporting what happened to me this week. Call me crazy, but I believe in the power of positive thinking and speaking.
I wonder what would happen if we started to talk to our spiritual illnesses in that way. What if we woke up and felt the downward tug of discouragement on our hearts, but instead of getting sick with it, we told ourselves, dicsouragement will not take hold of me today! What would happen if we told our sins and struggles, you are not going to get me today! We could convince our spirits daily that temptation would not be able to overpower us, and then we would began to live like it actually didn't have the power to do so. I realize that sin and struggle normally don't go away just because we tell them to, but physical illness doesn't normally do that either. Yet it did for me this week, and it makes me wonder if a little more positive talk would make a difference in our spiritual lives, too.
Try it with me this week: start telling your struggles, your sins, your temptations, and your battles, you cannot make me weak today. Then let's try living like we believe it!
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