Your health is your real wealth

Pastor Kilton Moyo

MAHATMA Gandhi once said, “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” How true this is and how relevant it is to our current situations. Today we spend our time and efforts pursuing wealth at all cost but neglecting our health. Many of us would do anything these days to acquire wealth or is it prosperity and pay no attention to our own health and before we know it we are either sick or dead.

I do not wish to scare anyone but just to help somebody who would dare read this. Everyone wants to be wealthy or prosperous. This is good and nothing is wrong about it. What disheartens is the way we are doing our things to get the so-called prosperity or to get welfare.

Imagine when we have as a country, about 80 000 abortions a year. What do you think happens to the health of these individuals? Of course the infants have already been murdered.

Some of them get pregnant in their pursuit for riches, better life, wealth or welfare. You have the money, car or new shoes but you are now sick. How does this benefit you?

You have graduated with a degree but your body is now sick because of the things you did while studying. I think we need to rethink some things here. Your health is more important than all these things. I believe you are better off struggling till you finish your education while you are healthy than finish it only to struggle again with your health.

This is the reason Gandhi would said your health is even better than pieces of gold and silver that you are chasing after and betraying your future.

It is not only about abortions but also STIs even among the youths, new infections, drunkenness, drug abuse, prostitution among students and the elderly alike. All these things compromise our health.

There are four things that kill us as people. It is the things we do, the things we say, the things we eat and the things we think. You can never escape the effects of these things on your spiritual, physical, emotional and mental health.

All our afflictions as people are a result of these four things. These will always open a doorway for enemy attacks.

The truth of the matter is that we are all able to control ourselves against these if we choose to. However, our biggest challenge is the wrong interpretation of prosperity. Everyone wants to get rich quickly and as a result many of us use anything at our disposal and the biggest victim is our bodies. We sell our bodies and sell our souls to get rich quickly or to just make a living. This beloved has serious consequences.

Prosperity is not the material things we think only. Prosperity is not even an end in itself. Desiring prosperity is not even a wrong thing. God desires you to be prosperous but you need to understand what He means by prosperity. 3 John 2 the Bible says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” God desires that you be in sound health. His prosperity includes your sound health. It includes your personal hygiene. This will be a result of a certain quality of life, commitment, dedication and action that is in line with the word of God.

Prosperity is not a momentary thing or event. It is an ongoing state of success and wellbeing and is intended for every area of your life. You cannot prosper while you are chasing one aspect of it and neglecting the rest. And yet this is what we are doing in the name of prosperity. Prosperity is a cluster of such things as wellness, safety, happiness, healthiness and peacefulness.

You can have money but be unwell in your physical body or in your mental state. You cannot call that prosperity. It is weird prosperity. Beloved, money alone is not wealth. Money alone and beautiful houses, clothes, hairstyles, shoes, cars and all those things are nothing without your physical health and mental soundness.

It is therefore an act of foolishness to sell your body for money or for pieces of gold and silver. It is an act of serious folly to betray your hygiene just to get some coins and claim you are seeking your upkeep. What kind of upkeep neglects your personal hygiene?

We need to balance these things beloved. We need physically healthy graduates. We need mentally healthy leaders, fathers, mothers and youths. We need a holistically healthy generation. If we are going to be such a generation we need to be careful with how we pursue prosperity and wealth.

Take care of what you think, say, eat and do. This generation has every potential to mess up everything unless we stop and seriously reconsider things and look at them according to the Word of God.

Stop where you are and look at the number of youths drunk and hopeless around you. Look at the number of them high and looking dead on drugs and other silly concoctions they take in the name of money, poverty and drowning their sorrows.

Look at how many practice divination, witchcraft and corruption seeking wealth. Look at the rate of sexually transmitted infections among the young. Never mind the abortion rates. Over a million people abort each year in Africa alone. What do all these do to our healthiness? Look at the rates of pregnant adolescents etc. It is disheartening to say the least.

All I am saying today is that your personal health is your real wealth. Prioritise your health above all things.

Prioritise your spiritual health, physical and emotional health above money and the so-called materialism. All I am saying is understand prosperity for what it is according to God and not you or deceived mindsets. Imagine how pleased God is when we all prosper in every aspect of our lives. This should be our goal. “Let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” Psalm 35:27b.

Well, the choice is yours. We have at least told you. All the justifications do not count. Just take care of your real wealth, your health and prosper.

Kilton Moyo is creator of Fruitful Marriages, a renewal and enrichment programme and is pastor, counsellor and author of The Sex Trap. Call or WhatsApp on +263775337207, +263772610103 or mailto:[email protected]>