Make Physical Health a Priority in 2013

The new year prompts us to consider new beginnings. That’s when we make New Year’s resolutions that are broken all too soon. Yet as Christians, we should always be striving to become all we can be in Christ—that’s what spiritual growth and being a disciple of Jesus are all about.

So when we turned our sights to covering health this month in Charisma, we decided to do more than just focus on physical health issues such as making dieting a New Year’s resolution. Our articles cover God’s perspective of health, which includes body, soul and spirit. It’s an interesting mix featuring some poignant stories on dealing with an elderly parent’s dementia and a father’s perspective on why God doesn’t heal his special needs son. In her typical tell-it-like-it-is style, Joyce Meyer addresses our daily battle with negative emotions, while Jentezen Franklin challenges us to make fasting more than just an annual event.

At Charisma Media we’re committed to health. We believe God heals supernaturally, but that Christians also have a responsibility to care for our “temples.” That’s why we’ve pioneered in the field of health from a Spirit-filled perspective with our Siloam line of books that have sold millions of copies in the last 15 years and made the imprint the leader in that segment of the Christian book-selling industry.

We’re expanding this in January with new websites and newsletters that bring the best of Charisma Media’s health coverage to your email address or via our Charisma News app. On the Web, you can visit charismahealth.com and sign up for our free newsletter, or download our free app at charismamobile.com. We’ll have new content for you daily.

If you don’t already have our Charisma News app, you can text “charisma” to 24587 on your smartphone or download it at the iTunes store. Charisma News gives you “breaking news from a spiritual perspective,” yet not only do we cover the charismatic community, we also use respected news wires such as the Associated Press that offer up-to-the-moment news wherever it happens—everything from a tsunami in Asia to unrest in the Middle East. Our editors sift through the steady stream of information and reports to find what you need to read and, when applicable, add spiritual perspective to help you “discern the times.”

We did this on election night this past fall. I stayed up and posted an analysis at 3 a.m., and we followed that with commentary from leaders such as Jack Hayford, Francis Frangipane and R.T. Kendall. The response has been encouraging, proving that there’s a need for such unique spiritual insight into current events. And though we’ve promoted these new Internet offerings, the majority of their growth continues to be via word of mouth and social media as people read and share the articles. In November, for instance, our app had more than 1.5 million screen views. We hope to continue such growth by now expanding our app to include “tabs” for the new health sites, as well as some of our existing brands such as Ministry Today and Christian Retailing. 

For many years it’s been my vision to serve the Spirit-filled community with reports on what God is doing. Not only is this not covered by secular news media, but other Christian sites are often anti-charismatic—so if there’s coverage, it’s critical. American culture is becoming increasingly hostile to anything Christian unless it’s so watered down it doesn’t threaten anyone. And sadly many Christians and ministries are compromising.

Yet as things become darker the church must become brighter. We must have new ways to communicate what God is doing amid the increasing bad reports. So if you feel what we do is important (and you must or you wouldn’t be reading this), please support these new ventures by visiting our sites, signing up for our newsletters or downloading our app. It doesn’t cost you anything.

On a personal note, I hope you’ll follow me on Twitter (@sstrang) or Facebook (stephenestrang) and sign up for my Strang Report newsletter at strangreport.com.

As you start the new year, make a resolution not only to be more healthy physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. We’re in a spiritual war and we need everyone to be fit and ready for battle to radically change our world through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Steve Strang is the founder and publisher of Charisma. Follow him on Twitter @sstrang or Facebook (stephenestrang).