Week 42—Saturday Galatians 5:16-17
Galatians 5:16-17
INWARD CONFLICT CHIEF CAUSE OF ILLNESS
We continue the positive attitudes making for health. Fifth, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. At the heart of mercy is forgiveness. We forgive everybody for everything. And we ask forgiveness. A mission college in India was on strike for twenty-one days and the college closed. An official in the college said a rude thing to a student. The student union; which the student represented, demanded that he apologize not only to the one student but to the whole student union. Over that the college was tied up for twenty-one days. Ask for forgiveness and give forgiveness to everybody or you’re tied up physically.
Sixth, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The pure in heart are the undivided in heart—the single-hearted. Inward division causes more unhealth and unhappiness than anything else. I asked a young woman missionary about to be sent home from the Congo what she thought was the matter, and she replied, “I’m sitting on a lid.” “What is under the lid?” I asked. “Two people—one who doesn’t want to be a missionary, and the other a person who is afraid if she isn’t a missionary she will be lost.” I replied, “You don’t want to be either of those—surrender of the divided self will solve it.”
Seventh, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. A little girl came down one morning and said to her mother, “What a beautiful day.” And the surprised mother said, “But how can you call this weather beautiful?” “But, mother,” the girl replied, “a beautiful day has nothing to do with the weather.” She reconciled her mother to the weather and had a more beautiful day for herself. The peacemakers make a new world around them and within them.
Eighth, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You cannot be healthy unless you stand for something—even at cost.
Ninth, Blessed are you when men revile you. . . . Rejoice and be glad. Nothing makes a person healthier than joy in spite of. Joy on account of is neutral, but joy in spite of is positive, hence health-giving.
O Jesus, you rejoiced in spite of. Give me that positive joy that can laugh at the “is,” for it is living in the “ought-to-be.” Make me incorrigibly happy, and then I shall be incorrigibly healthy. Joy makes me glow with health. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I will rejoice when there isn’t anything to rejoice about except my rejoicing.