How are you? It’s a question you hear a dozen times a day. Mostly you mumble a “fine” or “okay” and don’t give it much thought. But maybe you should.
How are you? Are you excited about life? Are you eager to see what God has in store for you each day? Or are you lethargic and downcast? In Malachi 4:2, God promises that to those who honor and revere him, “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.” Picture it—frolicking with the pure joy of being alive!
When you are sick physically, you take medicine to make you better. And how do you take that medicine? Ordinarily you take it by mouth in the form of a liquid or a pill, or you take it by injection into the bloodstream. When your sickness is that of your heart and your mind, how can you take a dose of faith, the medicine you need?
You can take it either through the eye or through the ear. For example, suppose you read the Bible. The printed words are reflected as an image on the retina of the eye. This is transmitted to the mind where it conveys an idea and the idea affects the diseased area of the mind with its healing potency. That is why you should read the Bible.
The other way you can take faith is through the ear. Suppose you come to church. You hear the reading of the Bible, you hear the great music, you hear the sermon, you hear the prayers. All these make impacts on the eardrum. And these travel to the mind by a process that I do not pretend to understand, and reach the diseased area where the fears are. And if you do this sufficiently and earnestly, you can be healed of your fears, your apprehensions and your anxieties by the strong message of faith.
The Gospels tell us that Jesus went about “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). Every disease—physical, emotional, spiritual. Jesus has promised that, “Whoever follows me will…have the light of life” (John 8:12). Can you think of a healthier, happier condition than being filled with God-given light?
God wants to make you whole. How are you?
