Pain: the Great Motivator

Pain is not only a powerful motivator, but is also a gift of God. Pain or sickness very often is the symptom or danger light to warn us that something is amiss and badly
needs attention. One of the tragedies with the disease of leprosy is that it causes a loss of feeling and pain is not felt. This disease does not cause the loss of limbs. It
destroys the feeling in those limbs, and when a limb gets hurt, the leper, because he feels no pain, fails to protect and take care of that member. Eventually, he loses it. So,
if we are going to be healthy, we need to allow our pains and sicknesses to motivate us to deal with the real cause of our problems, and not merely the symptoms.

Finding a Cure

According to the greatest handbook ever written on principles for daily living, the Bible, the first law of health and healing is clean living--that is, physical hygiene, sanitation, and moral living.

Over three thousand years ago Israel was a young nation and had been held captive in Egypt where there was considerable disease. When God through Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, he promised them a health program yet to
be equaled by modern science. God said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you" (Exodus 15:26, NIV).

Ron Vince in Channels magazine quoted the eminent English doctor, Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, who said, "The law of Moses is largely a law of good health. Its practice has made the Jews the healthiest, the most industrious, the richest among the races of mankind."5

Sir James Cantile, a famous London surgeon, once stated, "We have never yet upset one of Moses’ laws in regard to hygiene, sanitation, or medical teaching. All that the
scientists of today with their microscopes and textbooks did was to prove the ancient lawgiver to be right."6

And Dr. Paul Dudley White, the American heart specialist, said, "It is conceivable that a few years from now we medical men may repeat to the citizens of the United States
the advice that Moses was asked by God to present to the children of Israel 3,000 years ago."7 And that is, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes...."

To be continued ...