God heals! Whether it is PMS, menopause, AIDS, or cancer, your physical health and mental well-being are intimately linked to your spiritual health. This is not meant to imply that the only way to physical health is through supernatural healing. Don’t misunderstand. There are many physically and mentally healthy individuals who have no interest in their spiritual development. However, to achieve lasting, true, joyous well-being and balance, the spirit…that part of you that makes you human… can’t be excluded. Daily prayer can be as vital to a healthy midlife experience as exercise, herbs, and diet. Open your mind and heart to the possibility that prayer can be a powerful mode of healing and an essential part of health. Prayer is the thread that is woven throughout the tapestry of midlife giving it strength and unity.
For many, the association of prayer and healing is a natural one. You may have grown up in a tradition where the connection between your physical health and your religious beliefs was encouraged and supported. For others, the correlation between prayer with healing may be weak or even unrecognized. You may identify prayer and healing with a self-righteous, leisure-suited, television evangelist touching the screen and yelling, “Be gone, you evil hot-flash demon!” That is a sad but true caricature of healing prayer and not the focus of this chapter. I am concerned with a revitalization of the idea of unity of mind, body, and spirit.
PRAYER AS A DAILY PRACTICE
Consider prayer as a daily discipline for healthy living. Just as you would get up in the morning and brush your teeth …or soak your dentures… and reach for the vitamins, so you could …and should… have prayer as a part of your daily regimen. This is not meant to equate prayer and dental hygiene, but to illustrate how contemplation and talking with God should be a daily, common practice. For a long time I, like many others, thought of the relationship of prayer with healing from a last-resort mentality: When all else fails, pray. Prayer was the fail safe, hail Mary, attempt to pull it out at the end. I lived under this falsehood for the first few years of my medical practice. I would pray for folks when I believed nothing else…medical therapeutics or surgery… could alter the outcome. Scripture teaches that this is only a superficial understanding of what prayer is. This understanding of prayer places it on par with the Lottery. The reality is that prayer is essential, helpful, and comforting even when you are not in a crisis mode. Certainly there is a place for intercessory prayer in desperate situations, yet connecting daily with God provides a perpetual healing salve to the spirit. Don’t wait until you are sick to utilize this wonderful and powerful gift. Prayer is more than a tool, it is a sacred privilege. God heals through His grace and wisdom, and prayer has an impact. Effective healing prayer begins with a humble and repentant spirit that is more concerned with knowing God than healing. Praying or going to church in order to only “get healed” …external religiosity… has been shown to be ineffective, inauthentic, and unworthy.
