Friday: Stress: The Cause of All Diseases?
WEEK 30
FRIDAY
STRESS: THE CAUSE OF ALL DISEASES?
Psalm 94:18-19
We are studying the effect of mind and emotions on the body. A pastor tells of how his mother became physically ill when her son was converted. She was fighting it for herself. Then the mother herself was converted, and the moment she was she became well and happy. A husband, whenever he came near his wife, sneezed ten times. The reason was that his wife criticized and nagged him, and he took this method of warding off her attacks. He went on the offensive! This was all unconscious, of course. Many retreat into an illness as a method of getting out of a difficult situation, “If I were well, I could do it. But I’m not well, therefore I do not have to do it.” Illness is a refuge.
An article in the Reader’s Digest gives the theory that the basis of all diseases is what a doctor called “stress.” He became interested, not in specific diseases, but in the possible cause of all diseases—something that lay back of everything. And he fastened on stress. When one is under stress, the glands throw their secretions into the system to maintain the balance of the organism. But if the stress is long continued, then the defense mechanism breaks down, and the balance is not maintained. When that happens, disease may break out anywhere in the body, and that disease may be of various kinds. But the cause back of it all is stress. If that is true, then the maintenance of inner rest and poise is an absolute necessity for health.
A young wife, intelligent and cultured, had over forty allergies. Her marriage was childless. When she found she was going to have a child, every one of those forty allergies dropped away. The cause of them all was inner stress. A young man was called on to interpret my speech in India. He was afraid to try it. So he developed a sore throat as a way out of the dilemma.
O Jesus, you have shown us how to live with ourselves by living with adjustment. Help me to bring every thought and every emotion into adjustment. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My quiet heart shall be without stress or strain this day, settled down in God.