“Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”
– Luke 18:42
A survey conducted in the 1990s by the American Academy of Family Physicians showed that 99% of doctors believe that a relationship exists between faith and physical healing.
This line of thinking was bolstered by a California study on the effect of prayer on recovery from heart problems. About two hundred heart patients were assigned to Christians who prayed for them, while an equal number, a control group, received no known prayers. Neither group knew about the prayers, yet those who received prayer developed half the number of complications that were experienced by those in the control group.
A similar study by the Dartmouth Medical School examined the effect of prayer on healing when the patients prayed for themselves. The death rate six months after bypass surgery was 9 percent for the general population but only 5 percent for those who prayed for their own healing. And none of the deeply religious patients died during the period of the study.
Study after study shows that faith works when it comes to improving your health. Yet so often, many people downplay this relationship thinking if they can just get the physical problem fixed, everything will be okay.
As a human being, you’re more than just a physical body. You have a very real and active spiritual dimension as well. So as you focus on keeping your physical body healthy, remember to also nourish your spiritual well-being!
Prayer Challenge:
Pray that God would help you see yourself as more than just a physical being, and that He would help you keep your spirit healthy too!