When I was a healthy 19-year-old college student, more than a dozen life-threatening diseases, including Crohn’s disease, chronic candidiasis, entamoeba histolytica, and endocarditis, suddenly and mysteriously attacked my body. God used a biblical diet and lifestyle principles to heal me, and ever since then, I’ve had a great desire to help transform the health of God’s people, one life at a time.

Sometimes that message arrives too late. I heard about a missions pastor who died of cancer at the age of 39 from a friend of the deceased. At one time, I had been asked to talk to this missions pastor about how to eat healthier, but the call never took place. Left behind by this incredible man were a beautiful wife, four wonderful children, and a thriving global ministry. His friend ruefully shook his head and told me, “I guess it was his time to die.”

What if, before the cancer developed, he had turned away from fast-food jaunts, grazing on high-fat snacks, and avoiding fresh vegetables and fruits? What if he had changed his diet to organically raised meats and salads, cultured dairy products, and treats made without refined sugar? Would things have turned out differently? We’ll never know because now it’s too late, which is a shame because I believe God designed us to live long and fruitful lives.

Think about it: before Moses died, Scripture says that his eyes did not grow dim. The Bible tells us that the eyes are the windows of the soul, the light of the body. If the eyes are good, the whole body is good. In fact, when priests were called upon to diagnose a disease of an Israelite, they looked into the person’s eyes. What this means is that Moses did not die of an illness; nor was his body feeble or his mind weak. God was ready to take him home; Moses was simply used up.

Joshua passed away at the age of 110, just months after he came off the battlefield. Caleb was going full bore, battling giants in his late eighties, until the Lord called him home. These heroes of the Bible never spent time in assisted living or nursing homes. They drank the last drop from the cup of life because they followed God’s principles of good health found in the Bible.

You were created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26). You were made in God’s image for a reason, and that’s to be a reflection of God to the world for His glory. Think about it: Do you properly reflect His image? Are you healthy? Or do you think you’re healthy simply because there’s an absence of a grave disease in your life? Maybe you consider yourself healthy because you’re not hacking away with a cough, running a 103-degree fever, or dying in a hospital. But is that really the definition of being healthy?

Good health is a lot more than the absence of disease in your life. Good health is waking up in the morning feeling rested and ready to attack the day. Good health is having the energy to keep up with those kids you’re raising. Good health is having something left in the tank after you’ve put in a full day of work. Good health is thriving, not merely surviving. God intended us to live long and abundant lives to prosper and, as Joyce Meyer says it best, “Enjoy everyday life.”

I don’t believe God’s people are one bit healthier than the general population. While I’ve seen studies suggesting that those who go to church live longer, that doesn’t mean we’re living healthier. While believers in Jesus tend not to smoke or drink in the same numbers as everyone else, many in the church have not taken seriously the role that nutrition and exercise play in their lives. All you have to do is go to any church potluck or listen to a gasping, overweight pastor, and you’ll know what I mean.

Just thinking about my Wednesday night youth group growing up and all the pizza, doughnuts, and ice cream makes my arteries harden. I can also remember a few church potlucks featuring the following main dishes: mounds of fried chicken and smoked barbecue—shredded pork drenched in a molasses-based sauce; the high-carb side dishes: greasy onion rings, funny-looking potato salad, and runny coleslaw; and the over-the-top desserts: three-inch-high lemon meringue pie, cinnamon-dusted peach cobbler, and apple pie topped with whipped cream.

No wonder the church has its fair share of sick and hurting people. These days when I speak at churches, I can’t help hearing about the substantial number of people seeking prayer for cancer treatments, heart ailments, arthritis, and liver problems. From my vantage point, ill health is the number-one subject of prayer requests for churches and ministries. I’ve also taken notice of prayer requests for tough cases: children fighting diabetes,30-year-olds battling Parkinson’s disease, and fiftysomething schoolteachers exhibiting the first stages of neurological disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Don’t we know that we’re setting ourselves up for debilitating disease and/or early death by making poor choices in what we eat and how we live? Of course we do. You and I live in the Information Age, when our knowledge reportedly doubles every four to five years. To put things in a modern-day perspective, a weekday edition of the New York Times newspaper offers more information than the average person living in 17th-century England would come across in a lifetime. Although more and more information is available than at any other time in human history, I can’t say we’re any healthier in the 21st century. In fact, the research shows that we’re becoming less healthy.

Information is not the same as knowledge. Knowledge is acquired only when one is able to understand, interpret, and synthesize information productively, toward some valued purpose. This distinction between information and knowledge is crucial.

When answering the question of why we aren’t as healthy as we should be, I am reminded of what God spoke through His prophet Hosea thousands of years ago. In addressing the moral and spiritual decay of the nation of Israel, the Lord said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6 NKJV). Notice that the Lord said, “My people,” meaning believers, Christians, and churchgoers just like you and me.

I’m convinced that too many people coast through life without realizing that at least 80 percent of diseases are lifestyle-related. We must not be thinking about the significance of what we eat, the quantities we consume, and our sedentary, yet fast-paced, high-stress lifestyles; otherwise we shouldn’t be surprised when a Southwest Airlines gate agent politely demands that we purchase a second seat.

God wants to use you, but He also needs you at your physical, spiritual, and emotional best. My challenge to you is that you think about what steps you need to take to eat healthy, be disciplined about snacking, exercise regularly, and avoid toxins, and then resolve to follow through today.