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By Charles Dorrington
 There are many spas, gymnasiums and health centres in our communities that assist us toward healthy living. In spite of their best attempts, none of them can bring people to that place where their living is truly healthy. We cannot be living in a healthy way if we do not live in relationship with our Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ.
According to Scripture, we are made in God's image. As God is Trinity--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--so we also are trinity--body, soul and spirit. Far too often, efforts to achieve healthy living are focused on the body's health--maintaining a proper weight, working out in order to have muscular strength, and having a program to improve flexibility and balance. When these are all in order, the world says that we are 'healthy.' Far too often I have met people who have these three in wonderful shape--only to discover that they are in miserable health spiritually. In fact, many people in spiritual stress work themselves hard physically, believing that this will solve their problems. It doesn't.
Like our physical bodies, our spirits often carry around overweight baggage that we need to shed before we can be considered to be healthy. This baggage cannot be counted in the form of calories and carbohydrates. The baggage that weighs us down spiritually is the hurts and woundings that we have received throughout our lives, woundings that we have never been able to give over to God.
I suggest that persons carrying such baggage seek out a good Christian prayer counsellor who can walk with them through these pains and woundings, helping them give their woundings over to God. Prayer counselling is different from ordinary Christian counseling, where the counsellor may begin and end each session with prayer but spends most of the session doing regular counselling. This is very good but sometimes falls short of the needs of the person being counselled.
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In Christian prayer counselling, the counsellor is not the expert but the facilitator, allowing the Holy Spirit to be the counsellor. Instead of the counsellee looking to the counsellor for help, it is understood that the help and healing come from the Lord himself. The session focuses on the client's relationship with the Lord, inviting Jesus into the wounds and asking him to be the healer. Prayer is central, and the talking that happens is only to discover the issues that are to be taken to the Lord in prayer. Specific issues are targeted, and they are brought to the foot of the cross.
Sometimes a session brings the client to a place of forgiveness towards a particular offender. It is the release of forgiveness in the person's heart that brings the healing, much more than reconciliation between the parties involved. Sometimes reconciliation is an important part of the healing, but it is not always necessary.
Sometimes a prayer session will bring clients to a place of repentance for the sins in which they are engaged, and the counselor is able to assure them of the Lord's forgiveness. Many Christians are still carrying within themselves the guilt of sins long past, for which they do not believe God will forgive them, and for which they struggle to forgive themselves.
We all need to be whole to live as God would have us live. We should be careful not to leave out of our health programs a spiritual gymnasium that will allow the Lord God to release our spirits from their excess baggage.
Charles Dorrington is executive director of Victoria Prayer Counselling (www.victoriaprayercounselling.ca) and a former Reformed Episcopal Church rector.
September 17/2009
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