A healthy lifestyle won’t guarantee that you live longer. Very fit people die in car accidents every day, but a healthy lifestyle can help you live better. The basic components of a healthy lifestyle are simple. Eat healthily, stay hydrated, get exercise, and get enough rest. Unfortunately, in our busy world, living a healthy life is not as easy as it sounds. It takes intentionality and work.
Feed Your soul
An even more serious area for many Christians is the state of our spiritual health. It is very common for people not to maintain good spiritual health throughout their Christian lives, even though the basics for good spiritual health are as simple as the basics for our physical health. The same basic components can be used for both, though the meaning of the words will be different. To maintain a healthy spiritual life, one must “eat well.” Spiritual nutrition is critical for spiritual life. What we “ingest,” through Bible reading and study, sermons we hear, books by Christian authors that help us understand theological concepts and Biblical principles are all vital to our spiritual health. We must feed on God’s Word for our spiritual nourishment if we want to be spiritually healthy.
Hydrate Your Spirit
We also need to stay well hydrated spiritually. In John 7, Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” The passage goes on to say that this living water that Jesus spoke of was the Holy Spirit. Therefore, good Spiritual health involves regular experiences with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Two important ways in which we come before the presence of the Lord, and come appropriately, are through worship and prayer. Regular corporate worship and daily personal worship and prayer are crucial for good spiritual health. They help us engage with the Lord, and our spirits are “hydrated” with the living water of the Holy Spirit.
Exercise Spiritually
It is also essential for us to exercise spiritually. We exist for a purpose, and to be spiritually healthy, we need to take in the Bread of Life and the Living Water and give out in spiritual service. The Dead Sea is named such because nothing can live in it. The reason for this is that there is no outlet for the water. Water flows in and evaporates, leaving a growing concentration of minerals. But since there is no outflow, the water has become unfit for life and growth. If we want to grow spiritually, we certainly need to receive spiritual nourishment, but we also need to be involved in spiritual service. There must be ways to use the nourishment that we acquire if we want to be spiritually healthy.
Do not forget to rest
Finally, in the same way, rest is needed physically; rest is also needed spiritually. God set up a rhythm of life that includes rest. God demonstrated the pattern and underscored its’ importance by creating all there is in six days and then resting on the seventh. God did not rest because He was tired, but to demonstrate the importance of rest. The Sabbath is a part of the rhythm of our lives and is crucial for us to be spiritually healthy. There are times to “Be still and know that I am God.”
To work and serve to our maximum potential, we must have regular times for rest and refreshment. Just as nourishment and hydration prepare us to serve well, so too does rest. The healthy Christian life will include learning the scriptures, worship and prayer, faithful service, and times of refreshing rest. Discover how you can l spiritually, Be Healthy!
As Lent commences on Ash Wednesday, we are entering a time of introspection and prayer leading to Easter. Let us reflect on the significance of death preceding resurrection, urging readers to embrace a daily practice of surrendering self in preparation for our spiritual transformation.