The holiday season is nearly over. You know you’ve overindulged. Maybe you’ve added a few pounds. You know you haven’t taken time to exercise properly because the holiday season has been busier and you just haven’t had enough time. Maybe you feel sluggish and just not like yourself. So what do you do?
A large percentage of the population approaches the new year with a fresh resolve to change behavior. They make New Year’s resolutions. In the top ten most popular New Year’s resolutions you will find these: lose weight, eat healthier, drink less, quit smoking and exercise more. Why would these be so common? Perhaps because after a month of too much food, too little exercise and less that ideal schedules, we just don’t feel good. We know the answer is to make some new goals and get a fresh start. We instinctively know that if we want our physical bodies to come back into line, we need to make some changes.
But what about our spiritual health? Do we recognize that when we haven’t been feeding our spirits the right diet we can also get sluggish and flabby in a spiritual sense? Our spirits need a regular diet of God’s Word. We also need regular daily check-ups in God’s presence so He can tell us the things He desires us to know. But we also need to cut out the less than healthy parts of our spiritual diet just like we do with our physical diet. Even if we eat lots of fruits and vegetables and get plenty of good protein and lots of fiber, if we continue eating donuts and French fries on a regular basis, we still may not be caring for our bodies in the most optimal way.
Spiritually speaking, we need to pay attention to the “junk food” we are feeding ourselves every day. Perhaps we need to consider what we can cut from our daily intake. Perhaps we would benefit from looking at what we allow into our hearts and minds every day. Maybe we can make some changes that allow God more room to work because there is less clutter in His way. It’s kind of like comparing the way fats clog our arteries in our body to how worldly indulgence clogs our spiritual arteries.
I know I’ve found that writing these devotions is much more difficult if I’ve neglected this intentional feeding of my spirit. I’ve found it’s much more difficult to hear what God has to say when I’ve filled myself up with things of the world. They aren’t all necessarily sinful things, just too much of something that distracts me from God’s voice.
While I’m not particularly inclined to make New Year’s resolutions, I do think it’s wise to consider my behavior and recognize that I make choices every day that either draw me toward my Father or away from Him. It may not be as visible as our efforts to lose weight or exercise where we can see definite results. We need to trust that God will use our desire to draw closer to Him for our good even when we can’t really see any difference.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
With regard to making healthy choices for our bodies, we are really fighting a losing battle. There is only so much we can do to prolong life on this earth. Eventually our bodies will fail us and we will need them no longer. Our spirits are a different matter entirely. We are continually being transformed into the likeness of Jesus, Himself. More and more each day. One choice at a time.
What choices can you make today that will draw you closer to your Heavenly Father?
What will you feed your spirit today?