Doctors supplement medical treatment with forgiveness therapy

clean slateAs 18th-century poet Alexander Pope once stated, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Dr. Steven Standiford, chief of surgery at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, can testify to the truth of those words. Throughout his years of practicing medicine he has noticed that unforgiveness can have negative effects on sick patients–especially when it comes to cancer.

He has observed that “[i]t’s important to treat emotional wounds or disorders because they really can hinder someone’s reactions to the treatments, even someone’s willingness to pursue treatment.” With that in mind, Standiford and other doctors have incorporated “forgiveness therapy” alongside medical treatments to aid patients in their fight against disease.

Another one of these doctors in Dr. Michael Barry who did a study on cancer patients to find out what type of issues they deal with. He found that 61% of the cancer patients in his study had some unforgiveness toward someone. Of that 61%, over 50% had very intense feelings of unforgiveness due to very intense situations in their past. Barry points out that these feelings prompt chronic anxiety, which hinders patients from focusing on a hopeful mindset that can encourage them to not only seek treatments but can also help the treatments work.

Barry, a Christian and pastor, believes the first thing to move a patient toward that forgiveness is to highlight what Jesus told us in Matthew chapters 6 and 18 where he teaches that our heavenly Father forgives us our many sins as we forgive others their sins against us.

This is another real life example of how true and applicable God’s word is for our everyday situations.

He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat [healthy]. Proverbs 28:25

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you… Hebrews 12:14-15

Source: Lorie Johnson, The Deadly Consequences of Unforgiveness, CBN News, June 22, 2015.

2 thoughts on “Doctors supplement medical treatment with forgiveness therapy

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  1. Hello Harry.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Earth_Creationist

    I read through this article on Wikipedia regarding young earth creationists. And I must say, I did not realise how much criticism young earth creationists get. I mean I knew, but not to this extent.

    Lack of scientific acceptanceEdit
    Around the start of the 19th century mainstream science abandoned the concept of an Earth with an age younger than millions of years.[123] The six-orders-of-magnitude difference between YEC estimates of the age of creation and the measurements of the various biological, geological, and astronomical timescales provide for a stark contrast in possibilities. For example, all YEC estimates for the age of creation are younger than measurements of the age of the most ancient pottery discovered, the year-by-year accounting of the record of tree rings, the age of ice cores, the age of fresh water lake varves, and the observation of any star more distant than 10,000 light years.

    Spokespersons for the scientific community have generally regarded attempts to argue that young Earth creationism has a scientific basis as being little more than religiously motivated pseudoscience because young Earth creationism starts from the premise that their interpretation of the Bible is a literal description of the development of the universe, and only then proceeds to adopt corroborating evidence to fit their perspective. In 1997, a poll by the Gallup organization showed that 5% of U.S. adults with professional degrees in science took a young Earth creationist view. In the aforementioned poll, 40% of the same group said that they believed that life, including humans, had evolved over millions of years, but that God guided this process, a view described as theistic evolution, while 55% held a view of “naturalistic evolution” in which no God took part in this process.[124] Some scientists (such as Hugh Ross and Gerald Schroeder) who believe in creationism are known to subscribe to other forms, such as Old Earth creationism, which posits an act of creation that took place millions or billions of years ago, with variations on the timing of the creation of mankind.

    The young Earth creationist belief that the age of the Earth is 6,000 to 10,000 years old conflicts with the actual age of 4.54 billion years measured using independently cross-validated geochronological methods including radiometric dating.[77] Creationists dispute these and all other methods which demonstrate the timescale of geologic history in spite of the lack of scientific evidence that there are any inconsistencies or errors in the measurement of the Earth’s age.[78][79] In the last decade, a team of young Earth creationists at the Institute for Creation Research has been trying to cast doubt on the accuracy of radiometric dating techniques, but when subject to independent scrutiny by non-affiliated experts, their analyses have been shown to be flawed.[80][81][82]

    If you get a chance to read through the Wikipedia article, and see the garbage that is written. The above I copy and pasted are from said article btw.

    Also we should pray for our brothers and sisters who were killed in the mass shooting in South Carolina. It’s very sad, but I believe this attack was planned. Because our government is pushing to disarm the common folk. Even the “pope” said you are not Christian if you own a firearm. So apparently I’m not a Christian for providing my family with food.

    Anyhow God bless you Harry, and continue your good work brother.

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