Misery Loves Me

The past three Sundays I have spoken at two different churches on the power to heal or harm our brain by the ways we pray, think and relate with God. Today I am posting a sure fire way to be miserable now.

Many of us know that passage from Proverbs that says, "As a person thinks in his heart so he will become". (Sweeten Summary) Over the years I have found that to be quite true. It is one more incident where the Bible's wisdom that came from writers who lived thousands of years ago were inspired by the God who created us and knows how we operate. (Many people suggest that the Bible is actually "The Owner's Manual!)

Now let us quickly admit that thinking ALONE will not solve all our physical and spiritual problems but Stinking Thinking can certainly cause a lot of them. We also need prayer, love and sometime medicine. But, we might need less medicine and less healing prayers if we thought about God and the world with more faith and hope and love.

For all of you who struggle with fears, anxieties, depression and anger listen up. The main cause is often the fact that we react to life by REACTIVELY RUMINATING rather than MEDITATING on God and His word.

To Ruminate means that we ponder, review, compulsively embrace the painful events in our lives. We capture them and think about them and twist and turn them into poison pills that eat at our souls. Meditate is the opposite. It means that we ponder, recall, enjoy, review and regale in the goodness of God.

I want to ask you to consider one action step. Only ONE thing. Agree that at least three days each week you will choose to Meditate on God's grace and mercy and not Ruminate on your misfortunes.

Healing Heart Patients

In what must be one of the most unusual experiments in medical history, Dr. Robert B. Byrd, a cardiologist then at the University of California at San Francisco Medical School, conducted a random-sample, double-blind study of the effects of prayer -- not by the patients but for the patients -- on the outcome of cardiac surgery.

The study was published in 1982. None of the patients knew they were being prayed for, none of the attending doctors and nurses knew who was being prayed for and who was not, and those praying had no personal contact with the patients before or during the experiment. Outcomes for the two sets of patients differed significantly: Those prayed for had noticeably fewer post-operative congestive heart failures, fewer cardiopulmonary arrests, less pneumonia, and less need for antibiotics.

Spiritual Interventions

We need to carefully approach an intervention. Make sure whatever we do is:

1.Congruent with their worldview, beliefs, values, preferences and practices. Some groups may not think it is appropriate for anyone other than a priest or pastor to pray for them.
2.Reduces anxiety and produces peace. A positive effect requires that the Seeker is peaceful.
3.Sufficient time to integrate experience into thinking and recovery. We must not open up a serious spiritual issue unless there is enough time to bring it to a place of significant closure. We can always do it when we have more time.
4.Mobilizes their support system. We need to take care not to urge the Seeker to engage in behavior that is contrary to his family and church support.
5.Offers hope for the future. Increasing faith and hope develops good aftercare.
6.Reduces guilt, shame and condemnation. Guilt and shame destroy recovery.
7.Consistent with the patient’s motivational level. Ask for permission to pray, offer scripture or make any other intervention.
8.Mobilizes positive belief and faith. Encourage Seekers to believe that hope and change is possible.
9. Is biblical
10. Is gentle

Go to www.sweetenlife.com for more information.

Healing ADD/ADHD

A lot of people struggle with brains that are easily distracted. They are fidgety, restless and can't sit still. Parents are uptight with their messy rooms and seeming inability to listen, teachers are frustrated because they are up and sown and all around the room and society wonders why both parents and teachers don't do a better job of keeping them focused.

There is no "CURE" but medication, training and counseling can be helpful. I also suggest a lot of prayer. (Especially for parents and teachers.)

The Wall Street Journal has a nice article about this problem in adults and I suggest that you read it online.