HOW HEALTHY IS OUR FAITH?

  

 

             

   Most of us could do better in striving to eat right and exercise. The same applies

   to our spiritual lives. What are we doing to become more spiritually healthy? I

   welcome your comments about how you stay spiritually fit.

   ETERNAL PERSPECTIVES  By Sally Bair                                   

      Setting goals

Statistics prove that Americans are out of shape. And no wonder. We’re surrounded by fast-food restaurants, coffee shops offering rich lattes, and grocery stores filled with hundreds of poor choices. We’re bombarded by food ads on television. Consequently, we rate high on the charts for diabetes, heart disease, and other life-threatening diseases.

Paradoxically, our book stores offer dozens of diet books and our drug stores are lined with diet helps and medications for ailments brought on by our poor lifestyles. It’s enough to drive a person to the nearest chocolate bar!

We must blame ourselves for our bad habits. Instead of sitting before the television, computer, or video game for hours, we could—heaven forbid—exercise! We could make more healthful choices of food and drink. I’m as guilty of making poor food choices as anyone. I struggle with temptation every day.

Times have changed. Most of us don’t have to hunt for our meat, pump our drinking and bathing water, spin yarn for our warm clothes, grow and harvest wheat for our bread, or cut trees for building our houses and heating them. As a nation, we’ve exchanged our muscle with fat. We need to make some changes.

Changing our physical habits takes discipline, time, hard work—and setting goals. So does changing our spiritual habits. Are we eating a proper diet of God’s Word? Are we exercising our mind and spirit by walking with Him, listening to Him, obeying Him? Is our ultimate goal to be spiritually healthy enough to win the prize of eternal life with Him?

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly…” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25)

The best way to start our journey toward setting goals for spiritual good health is to search the Bible regularly and diligently. Once we know what God asks of us, we can begin to apply it to our lives every day. 

Lord, forgive us for all the times we’ve not done right by our bodies and by our souls. Help us today to set worthy goals to get back into physical and spiritual fitness. Give us the strength and discipline to practice good health habits. In Jesus’ name, Amen.