Bodily health is a great blessing and should not be trifled with, but all means likely to preserve it should be attended to. To this the Apostle refers and recommends the ship’s company to take some meat, because it was for their health.
Spiritual health is an invaluable blessing and should be most carefully attended to. Unless the graces of the Spirit are in vigorous exercise and the duties of religion are our delight we are not in health; there is some sickness and we need the physician’s care.
To preserve health where it is and to restore it where it is not, attend to the following prescription. It is valuable; it is important, because it is for your health.
First: You must take exercise
And I recommend that you walk daily in the Paradise of God’s Word; that you work in the Vineyard of God’s Church; that you bathe in the Fountain of Redeeming Blood; that you keep up Fellowship with lively Christians; and that you exercise all the graces of the Spirit. Attend particularly to these for it is for your health.
Secondly: Pay attention to your diet
Let your food be the best. The Bread of Life and the Living Waters of Salvation are recommended. They satisfy and sanctify; a little will preserve life but much is necessary to health; take your food regularly for regularity is important. You cannot prosper and be in health unless you live upon Christ and live upon Him every day.
Thirdly: As to your medicine
It is made up of bitter herbs of disappointment, losses, crosses, temptations, bereavements, troubles and trials of various sorts. It is very unpleasant but very profitable. Unless taken freely you will be laid up with idleness, carelessness, anxiety, pride or selfishness, but this medicine is intended to prevent or remove these evils. Your Heavenly Father will prepare it. Divine Providence will present it, you are to beg the Divine blessing upon it; take it and expect benefit from it. Do not despise your medicine for it is for your health.
Fourthly: We prescribe tranquillity
You cannot be healthy unless you preserve tranquillity of mind, in order to which, live in peace with God as a loving child with a kind and gentle father; cast all your cares upon him, daily confess your sins before Him and get a renewed manifestation of His pardoning love. Be content with your lot, it is appointed by infinite wisdom and love. It is the very best that can be and this you will see and confess by and by. Trust the promises and providence of God for the future; live by the day, take no anxious care for the morrow and leave the future with the Lord, for it is your health.
Believer, God designs to preserve and restore thy spiritual health in all He does. Does He require you to obey His wise, His holy, His flesh-displeasing precepts? It is for your health.
Does He afflict you? It is for your health. Does He try you in your temporal circumstances? It is for your health. Does He bereave you of your friends and loved ones? Even this is for your health. The cup is bitter but the design is gracious; the draught is nauseous but the effect is sweet. All things work together for the good of those that love God and are called according to His purpose.
If we use much exercise, pay strict attention to our diet and live in holy tranquillity we shall not want much medicine, but if we become inactive, feed upon the vanities of time and are anxious about many things, we shall often need a regular course of medicine and as surely as we need it we shall have it and if we complain or repine, our Heavenly Father will silence us by pointing to our folly and asking “Hast thou not procured this to thyself?”