The Great Physician’s Healing Plan Series

Psalm 6: 1 – 10

The Great Physician’s Healing Plan

1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure. 2 Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled. 3 My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O LORD—how long? 4 Return, O LORD, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! 5 For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks? 6 I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. 7 My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies. 8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my supplication; The LORD will receive my prayer. 10 Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.

I was just talking with a man whose son had just graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Biology from a Junior College. Let me mention that he was the one who initiated the conversation. Before I could congratulate the proud poppa for his son’s accomplishment, the man continued on with his talk. He informed me that his son was only 1 of 6 students who majored in this field. He then went on to tell me that over 200 of the 250 graduates majored in Psychology. He continued on, that unless these people had a Doctorate Degree in Psychology, such as I do, they just wasted all their time.

Don’t you just love it when people go out of their way to zing you? I mean, you have people, who have just experienced a good thing in their personal lives, and instead of wallowing in the nice situation, these evil people want to deride another person less fortunate. It is also true that this guy doesn’t have a clue as to why I obtained a Doctorate In Psychology. I went through all those courses and work so I could help others, not because I believe in or like this false science.

As a Pastor you wind up having to counsel people who struggle with physical, emotional, and spiritual issues. You might be thinking right now that IU should only be concerned with spiritual issues. I would say to you, yes and no. Let me give you an explanation and a example. You be the counselor. A person comes to you and says that he/she is depressed. They feel that God has abandoned them. They start to question whether they really are a Christian. Everything in life stinks. They feel that a dark cloud follows them all the time. They look disheveled which clearly shows the signs of stress that then been under.

What would you do? What would you say? Would you tell this person to go get on meds to deal with their problems? Would you open you bible and throw out a few clever verses at them?

In the book of James we come across some good advice. James is a man of action. He informs us that a person who has put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will observe and do the tings to help others even those things not necessarily spiritual. If someone needs something to eat, you arrange to get them some food. If they need shelter you work to get them a place to stay. The list goes on and on.

So, recognizing this Godly advice, I went to college to gain knowledge and a degree in order to understand what the world is feeding people who have emotional problems. I also went to medical college to gain knowledge in individual’s physical problems.

Oh yes, back to the person who came with the ‘depression’ issue. First of all, I let him spill all his pent up frustration. If you know about counseling they attempt to schedule people for 1 hour increments. I do not. If I can determine what is affecting a person after only 15 minutes, I give the person a suggestion of areas to eliminate and incorporate. Many cases I ignore the clock and let the person go on even if it takes hours to unravel the person’s particular problem.

You need to review all past counseling which this person may have undergone. What medication has this person been taking? Is this person seeing another doctor? What about human interactions; jobs, marriage, family, finance, etc. are areas that need to be explored.

It winds up that this person wasn’t eating or sleeping right. I could go into a whole dissertation on how improper diets and lack of sleep affect health, but I will not for time sake. Anyway with placing this person on a path to eat properly, exercise, and sleep the proper amount of time, while balancing the day, this saint automatically corrected the emotional and physical problems. This person then found it easy to find rest in prayer and self study in the Word of God.