At the top of the list, for most of those who make New Year’s Resolutions, is getting fit and leading a healthier lifestyle. Many see the beginning of the year as a time to reevaluate, refocus and make a concerted effort to improve their way of life. While our minds are attentive to such matters, let us consider some tips for getting fit spiritually and leading a healthier spiritual life.
1. Maintain a healthy diet. If your physical body requires three meals a day and occasional snacks, how can your soul survive on any less? “Desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2). Spiritual growth can only come by feasting on the spiritual food of God’s Word!
2. Spend time with the Great Physician. With direct and constant access available for us to the Great Physician, we have no excuse to become spiritually unstable. You don’t have to make an appointment or sit in a waiting room. Simply, “in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6).
3. Stay active. Indifference, apathy, inactivity, lethargy — these things will not only sap physical life out of a person, they will debilitate a Christian to a state of unfaithfulness. To maintain spiritual fitness, a child of God must be “always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). Don’t be a spiritual couch potato this year. Work for the Lord!
4. Think on righteousness and godliness. Medical professionals tout “the power of positive thinking” in the lives of their patients, and so does the Great Physician. “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Phil. 4:8). Aim to have spiritually-healthy thoughts.
5. Avoid sick people. Just as you would never shake the hand of someone who just sneezed into it, “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11). Those with whom we associate have a tremendous influence on us and our spiritual health: “Evil company corrupts good habits” (1 Cor. 15:33).
6. Quit bad habits. As there are some habits that will cut your physical life short, there are some habits that will cost you an eternity in heaven. “As sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:11).
What will you do to be healthier this year for God?