Strengthening Our Spiritual Health

By: Melissa Baker

We are getting to the end of the first month of the new year. Those who have made new years resolutions might still be hanging on, while others have either achieved their goal or have given up. A common resolution that people often make is to lose weight or get healthy. I know that this is something that we have been working on in our home as well. We are trying to eat right, trying to exercise everyday and trying to make good and healthy choices. We are trying to strengthen our physical bodies. And although our physical health is really important, our spiritual health is even more important. 

Just like we work hard to strengthen our bodies, we also need to strengthen our minds and our faith. We need to gain wisdom on how to achieve our spiritual goals, and grow our faith just like we grow our bodies. Staying in the Word of God is one way to strengthen our spiritual health. We must read our Bibles if we expect to strengthen our faith and grow in our walk with the Lord. We must feed our minds with the "food" it needs to nourish it. There is so much wisdom in the Bible, as well as important information we need to be able to walk the Christian walk. It is literally our instruction manual for life! So dig in everyday!

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.

2 Timothy 3:16

Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.

Romans 15:4

Another way we can strengthen our spiritual health is to attend a church. Not only will we get to fellowship with other Christians, but we will hear the word of God in sermon form, as well as get closer to God as we worship Him. Our family attends services on both Sunday's and Wednesdays at our church. We start the week off with our Sunday service, and by Wednesday, we need to refuel! We need that mid week connection with other believers and to hear the word of God. We need that mid week refuel to gain spiritual strength to finish the rest of the week. So if you don't already attend a local church, I encourage you to find one! 

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

Hebrews 10:25

Prayer is another very important step to strengthening our faith. It is our direct communication with our God. If we don't speak with Him, how can we communicate and grow our relationship? For example, if we don't talk to our husband or the people in our lives, how will we get close with them? How will we even have a relationship? It works the same with God. If we don't communicate with Him, there is no relationship. So prayer is a MUST! 

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

James 5:16

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Philippians 4:16

'Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is

God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.'

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

All these things will help us grow closer to the Lord and strengthen our faith and spiritual health. Let's not just focus on our bodies and other worldly things this year, lets renew our minds as well. It is so incredibly important to have a relationship with Jesus! And reading our Bibles, praying, attending church and worshiping Him will draw us ever close to Him and He will move in our lives like never before. We just have to be intentional about it, and actually let Him move! So weather you make new years resolutions or not, lets make a resolution right now to be intentional about strengthening our spiritual health and our relationship with the Lord.