Inner Health and Well Being

UV 943-10,000 Inner Health and Well Being Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Psalm 43 v 5 The secret of inner health or well being is revealed in this uni-verse. We always have an inner dialogue within us, a conversation with ourselves. At times when we are depressed , we need to ask ourselves, “ why are you discouraged or disappointed when the Lord has finished all things so well for you? Why are you worried when He is your salvation and He is able to do all things for you? “ Then our inner spirit moved by the Holy Spirit will answer, “ Hope in the Lord.” Indeed, Christ in us is the hope of salvation. Since we have this sure hope of salvation why should we be upset by temporary setbacks in this world. This is the reason St Paul wrote, “ what I once considered as gain, I now consider as loss or mere rubbish.” He had earlier considered his great knowledge of the Torah, his education at the feet of Gamaliel and his learning and knowledge as great gain. Now he considered all these as loss in comparison with the personal knowledge he had gained of Jesus. Job was the very epitome of hope in God for he said after all his great tribulations, “ Though He slay me, yet shall I praise Him.” He held onto his hope as he believed that “ My Redeemer lives.” Our hope in God buoys us up and enables us to always praise Him in good times and bad. The face they say is the index of the mind. Hence, when we are always hoping in the Lord and as we are always thanking and praising Him for His grace and mercy, our face will always reflect the peace of God. Our brow should not be knit in worry. Our eyes should not reflect sadness or regret or disappointment. Our lips should not be curled in anger or bitterness. Our “ face language” reflects the glory and joy of the Lord. When we recall all the reasons we need to be joyful in the Lord, when we raise a praise and thanksgiving to Him, our spirits will begin to soar. Cheerfulness will be restored to our visage and gladness to our soul. The Trinity rules over our lives through a trinity of values: faith, hope and love. The enemy of our souls rules through fear, sadness and hate. The latter constantly wages a battle inside us to create fear, sadness and hate in order to make our souls downcast and create a disquiet within us by making us hear contrary voices to the Word of truth. At such times, we need to dispel fear, sadness and hate by securing ourselves with the peace of Jesus, by affirming our hope that He has made us more than conquerors for we have conquered fear, sadness and hate. We need to affirm our hope at two levels – in our inner beings or our souls as well as with our mouths. The outer expression of hope should be preceded or accompanied by an inner conviction of faith. Prateep V Philip