Spiritual Health
Spiritual health is something I briefly wrote about in a blog post here a couple years ago. I had no plans of writing anymore about this. But after writing a post about mental health and emotional health, I felt the need to write a post about spiritual health also.
In some ways, a post on spiritual health doesn't necessarily seem to fit a health blog; and yet, in other ways, it very much ties into everything I've written so far.
We are not only physical and emotional beings, we're also spiritual beings. God created man with a spirit, and our spiritual health has an affect on us. Truly, our spiritual health is the more important one of all.
Our physical body will die someday, but our spirit lives on. We either go to heaven to live with God forever after we die, or we go to everlasting death without God. The latter makes me shudder. I don't like the thought of anyone ever going there. God doesn't want anyone to go there either.
God is such a loving Father. He never forces His will on anyone. He gives us a choice.
Most people are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in the garden after God created man. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. Their choice affected not only themselves, but also, all of creation. We live in a broken, fallen, sin cursed world.
Thankfully, God didn't leave us in that state. God sent His only Son to redeem us from the curse of sin and death through the death and shed blood of His Son on the cross. Some call that "the Gospel" which simply means: "good news". Truly, that is the greatest news of all. God didn't leave us in our lost state.
For those like me who grew up with the story of the Gospel, hearing that story over and over again can sometimes become ordinary to us after awhile. May that glorious message never, ever lose its glory to us!
Salvation really is so simple. Like our physical health, it wasn't meant to be complicated. It's not rocket science - something hard to understand. God's perfect, original diet for man was a plant based one. (Genesis 1:29) (God allowed man to eat animals, but it's good to limit how much you eat of that.)
The simple truth of salvation is that God loves mankind so much that He sent His Son to suffer and die, to shed His blood as the atonement for our sin.
God provided the way. Our salvation was fully paid for by the precious blood of Jesus, God's Son. God offers the free gift of salvation to all who repent of their sin (their disobedience to Him) and trust in the atoning blood of His Son.
What choice do we make? We make a choice whether or not we will repent of our sin.
Proverbs says it so well:
"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Proverbs 28:13
It really is that simple.
Our part is repentance.
God's part is atonement.
Nothing that you or I could do would ever atone for our sin because God's Word makes it very clear that only blood atones for sin - the blood of the perfect Lamb of God.
That is why the message of salvation is so glorious! God has so much love for each of us! Many songs have been written about that throughout the centuries. A song that I love is titled “Hallelujah for the Blood”.
We make a choice to either say yes to God or no to God. We say yes to God by agreeing with Him (confessing) and forsaking (repenting) our sin.
Even as Christians, our spiritual health can be affected by different things.
Once we choose to repent of our sin and trust in the atoning blood of Christ, we are to continuing walking that way. I love this verse from the book of Colossians:
"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." Colossians 2:6
So simple. In the same way we chose to accept Christ, we are to walk that way with Him. That's a verse I've loved for a long time, ever since I was a young Christian.
In my own walk with God, I've come to see two important things in God's Word. What are those two things?
They are the two things Satan used on Eve in the garden. I believe Satan uses these exact same things on people today. Why? Because both are so incredibly effective.
The first thing Satan did was make Eve question God's Word by saying to her:
"Yea, hath God said...?" Genesis 3:1
He basically asked Eve: "Did God really say?"
Amazingly, Eve told the serpent what God said. Satan's response to her was that God didn't really mean what He said. Satan tries to tell us the exact same thing today. God's Word is so important. God's Word, should be our final authority. I recently wrote a post about the Word of God on my personal blog which you can read here.
The other thing Satan did, very slyly, was make Eve question Who God is. Satan made Eve question God's character, God's love and goodness. How did Satan do that?
Satan tried to make it look like God was keeping something good from Eve. Satan made the tree that God told them not to eat from look really appealing. Satan lied to Eve by saying:
We all know what happened. Eve believed Satan's lies. She disobeyed God and ate from the tree that God told them not to eat from. Adam did the same thing. So sad!
And yet, Satan tries to get us to believe those exact same lies today. Satan tries to make us question God's Word and God’s character - Who God really is.
May I briefly share my own story, my own testimony? By doing so, I will also share one of my greatest weaknesses. This will be a condensed version of my testimony. If you want to read my testimony, you can read that here.
I was raised in a Christian home. I heard Bible stories and learned to read and memorize Scripture from a young age. When I was about 5 years old, my mom asked me one evening in our little home in Michigan if I would like to pray and accept Jesus as my Savior. She said that Jesus had died for me, and I could go to heaven to live forever with Him in heaven someday if I wanted. I said yes. And so, my mom prayed a short, simple prayer with me. I was happy that I belonged to Jesus, and I was happy to go to heaven someday, but I didn't think much of my little prayer after that night.
Years later, at the age of 11, living in California with my family then, God began working in my heart. God showed me, very clearly, that my relationship with Him was broken because of my sin against Him. God used a simple verse from His Word to convict me:
"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Psalm 66:18
I began confessing my sin to the Lord, not because anyone was telling me to do so, but because God's Spirit was working in my heart. God was drawing me to Himself. At the age of 11, I repented of my sin and trusted in the atoning blood of Christ for my sin, and I gave my life to God completely. I became a new person. God's Spirit now lived in me, and I began to walk with God. I remember thinking sometime around that age that "this is what it truly means to walk with God!"
My walk with God became the most precious thing in the world to me. I treasured my walk with God.
Years later, my family moved to Colorado where I still live today. At the age of 16 back in 1998, I attended a one week Bible school for youth out east. I enjoyed it very much, but during that week and months before at home, I broke down crying many times. What was wrong? I didn't even know exactly what was wrong. I was a mess, emotionally, because I was very confused.
In learning to walk with God many years earlier, I developed a sensitive conscience towards God, so much so, I eventually developed an "over sensitive" conscience. A sensitive conscience towards God is a beautiful thing, but an "over sensitive" conscience - not so much. Satan used that to his advantage.
Satan made me question many different things, including my own salvation. I was so confused. I remember asking the Lord to help me. He did.
I began to ask myself questions like:
What is salvation? What does it mean to be saved? Have I been saved?
After I thought about those things, I realized I had been born again at the age of 11, not at 5.
You see, I had been taught something false as a child. What was that? I was taught that you could accept God's gift of salvation without any repentance of sin. That was something I didn't understand at 5 years old. God makes it very clear in His Word that:
At the age of 11, I clearly understood that.
God brought so much peace to my heart at the age of 16 when I realized that I truly became a Christian at the age of 11 not at age 5. I did not doubt my salvation anymore after that. God made it so clear to me.
Satan not only had me confused for months, he also had me concerned that God was angry with me. You see, ever since I was a girl, the evil one has tried to paint a false picture of God to me. What do I mean by that?
Satan tries, in different ways, to make us doubt God's character. Just like Eve in the Bible, Satan tries to give us a false view of God. Our view of God is so important. Why?
It is very difficult to trust someone you think is angry at you or against you.
On the day that I gave my life to God at the age of 11, I saw God as the loving heavenly Father that He truly is. Even as I was learning to walk with God, I viewed Him as a loving Father. I had a right view of God. But at times, Satan would try to make me doubt God's love and goodness. And he was very sly about it. I may have read something or heard something that didn't sit well with me. Whatever that was, it gave me a false view of God. Often, I would go pray about it, until that bad feeling passed.
My favorite Bible verse, ever since I was a girl, has been:
"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Psalm 34:8
Another favorite verse of mine is:
"We love him, because he first loved us."
1 John 4:19
Why do I love those two verses so much? Because they mention God's goodness and God’s love.
At the age of 37, I had major surgery to remove a large, benign, fluid filled, ovarian cyst. During surgery, I lost my left ovary and tube. (I shared that story here on my health blog)
In the months before my surgery, Psalm 103 became very special to me. Psalm 103 talks about God's character. It gives a beautiful picture of Who God really is. Though I love the entire Psalm, during that time, I especially loved verse 3 which says:
"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." Psalm 103:3
Isn't that beautiful? I didn't have a disease, but that huge cyst in me almost felt like one.
During the months before my surgery, there were people who implied to me that this was all part of "God's will" for me. What did that do to me? It made me think that God was against me. Was that true? No, it wasn't. (If God wanted me to have that cyst, then why would I go to a doctor to have it taken out?)
I had to cling to the truth of Who God is based on His Word during that time. 3 John 1:2 says:
"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."
I've known for a long time the importance of our view of God. To this day, I frequently pray for God to heal any wrong view that I may have of Him. Like Eve in the Bible, the evil one tries to target me in that area. You could call it a weakness of mine.
Sadly, many people, including some Christians, misrepresent God. We have to go by what God says about Himself in His Word, not what others say or do.
I love the hymn, Jesus Loves Me, because of the truths from God's Word shared in that song. There is a verse from that hymn that I love. Whoever wrote this hymn, had a correct view of God.
"Jesus loves me when I'm good.
When I do the things I should.
Jesus loves me when I'm bad,
but it makes Him very sad."
I have no idea who reads this blog. If only one person came to personally know God through just this one post, this health blog would be worth it all.
Our spiritual health can, indeed, have an affect on our physical health. When you live with a guilty conscience, that can affect your health. More importantly, our spiritual health affects us for all eternity. That's why this one matters the most.
God loves you and me so much that He gave His only Son for us to return to Him! That is true love. Knowing that truth is where good spiritual health begins.
Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, and I have no medical training. The things I share on this blog are simple, practical things that I've learned help with good health.
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