Immunity December 6, 2004 Issue

PRAYER OFFERS PROTECTION

Bea Roegge

I WAS CHECKING OUT a room I had booked for a conference. The refrigerator contained something rather unexpected—some unused flu vaccine. When I contacted the building's business office, they told me the room had been used earlier for a program to administer flu shots. The program had to be curtailed because there were problems with the vaccine.

When the personnel said they would dispose of the vaccine, I found my heart going out to those who were depending on the inoculations, and who might be afraid of catching the flu. But I also used this incident as an opportunity to think more about what protects people from infectious diseases. That happened some years ago, and since then, I've grown more convinced that the ultimate protection is in spirituality.

The Bible advises that turning to God frees us from various diseases. One such promise is in the 91st Psalm: "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling" (Ps. 91:9, 10). Making God our "habitation" involves consciously dwelling in what the psalm earlier describes as "the secret place of the most High"—in other words, keeping one's thoughts trained on the truth that God protects His creation from all harm.

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