Spiritually Healthy – Part 4

Think with me for a moment, when you take your car to the mechanic’s workshop, it does not make you a mechanic right? And when you visit the hospital, it does not make you a doctor right? In like manner, going to Church does not make you a Christian either, although Christians do attend Church.  Therefore spiritual health is more than mere talk, it requires active participation and inclusiveness.

“The physicians and psychologists have at their disposal several tools or equipment to assess physical and mental health, but, how do we assess spiritual health.”? According to Lewis (2003), “Every Christian would agree that a man’s spiritual health is exactly proportional to his love for God.”  C. S. Lewis.  According to Lewis (2001), spirituality is not Mere Christianity, instead, it is “embracing God’s personality,” and that there is no real spirituality without God’s personalities. In other words, “Until you have given up yourself to Him you will not have a real self.” Lewis, C. S. (2001). Mere Christianity. London: HarperCollinsPublishers, p.226.

Spirituality or spiritual health is more than Mere Christianity, I believe it is appealing to some kind of standard of behaviour which is required of us as a people who profess Christ. Since this is the case, what then does being spiritually healthy look like? I am glad you asked.

• Having an appetite for God. An appetite is an insatiable hunger, it is a longing and a desire. Are you aware God’s Word is the living water? Jesus said, “…but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” Read John 4:13-14 (NIV). Watch this, eternal life is in Christ, Selah. True spirituality and health start with drinking from the living water of Christ. Listen to what the Psalmist says, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” Read Psalm 42:1 (ESV). Can you see this? I can appreciate that we might have an appetite for several things, but here we see the Psalmists instructive statement referring to a hunger, a deep-seated hunger which can only be quenched by God; nothing else will do.

As Christians, our desire and fundamental duty are borne out of an urgency to get as many people within our world to see and understand that being spiritually healthy is the most important and critical success path for our families and nations, but it starts with  YOU. We have the power to turn the tide, and it won’t come by compromise, but by a steeliness and conviction, “For it is [not your strength, but it is] God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure.” Read Philippians 2:13 (AMP).

It is God’s good pleasure that we are spiritually healthy because that is the spark of effecting change.

We write. You read. Be encouraged.