When told that illness can be overcome through faith, some may feel this implies that doctors are unnecessary or that medical science can be discounted. But this is absolutely not so. When we become ill, it is natural to seek the diagnosis and treatment of a physician. However, the basis for overcoming illness lies ultimately in our own life force.
The human body possesses the inherent power to repair or mend itself. These natural powers of immunity, resistance and recovery protect the body from illness and function to restore it to health should illness occur. Human tears, for instance, contain a natural “eye medication” called lysozyme, a germicidal enzyme that protects the eye’s surface from viral or bacterial infection that might result from foreign matter entering the eye. When micro-organisms enter the body, they are engulfed and destroyed by white blood corpuscles (leukocytes). Our ability to stay healthy depends on tens of millions of these white blood cells, which constantly battle viruses and bacteria that enter the blood stream. Pus, the yellowish-white substance that forms in infected tissue, is actually an accumulation of leukocytes that have died in the process of fighting infection.
Therefore, it is not quite accurate to say that illness is caused by germs or microbes entering our body. It is more correct to say that we become ill when our natural defenses are defeated by these organisms. Thus it is more important to recover than to be cured. Medical treatment supports the body’s ability to overcome illness, but it is extremely rare that medication alone rids the body of the cause of illness. Surgery is also a method for assisting the body’s natural recuperative power. After surgery, regenerate and heal. In some cases, people have died even after surgery because the body lacked the fundamental power to regenerate and heal itself.
Many people have overcome apparently incurable illnesses through strong willpower and faith. While treatment of the physical symptoms of disease should be left to medical experts, the only way to fundamentally strengthen our life force is the correct practice of faith. Diseases that cannot be easily cured with medical treatment are actually a problem of one’s life itself. A problem that exists on that level of life can only be addressed through faith. Faith is a function of determination. In overcoming illness, then, it is vital to pray with the powerful determination that you must absolutely recover and enjoy good health, so you can fulfill your important mission in your life.
“ Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle. ”
― Christian D. Larson
