An Annual Spiritual Health Check
September 26, 2012
Have you gotten a physical check-up in the last year? Regardless, of your answer have you ever done that spiritually?
I recently was at a bible study on an early Thursday morning. We were prepared to continue our study of Francis Chan’s amazing book, Crazy Love. However meaningful that study hour was, what I received before we began was even more meaningful to me. I desire to share it with you today. I believe it can benefit you today if you are willing to complete the 14 questions that are posed below from Life Point Church.
No matter what you believe spiritually speaking, it is my hope and prayer that you will take some time today to ask yourself these questions and be challenged, encouraged and inspired.
An Annual 14-Point Spiritual Health Check-up
Some people are pretty good about getting physical check-ups each year. Some might even get a routine physical exam yearly. Many people also go to church on a fairly consistent basis. However, how many of us truly take a spiritual inventory yearly or understand the value in doing so? Scripture is clear that physical training is of some value, but godliness with contentment is not only great gain, but it has value in this life and the life yet to come. That is the life found in eternity for those that believe by faith in Lord Jesus and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For those that know me well as the business/life coach, public speaker, entrepreneur and author focused on helping people take action on their dreams, they wouldn’t be surprised by my focus on answering a list of questions such as this. I am all about being challenged, lifelong learning, spiritual growth and empowering others as such through my life energy.
What did surprise me though were my answers after I reviewed them honestly and made a personal reconciliation of sorts. Some of the answers were very encouraging and affirming. Others were simply not. Several others were less than what I would honestly hope to put down.
Realizing the summation of my answers, I was challenged to focus on answering these questions more than once. I realized that taking inventory of my spiritual health on an annual basis was a wise thing to do. It is easy for anyone to give themselves more credit than due or to lie to themselves. It is easy to deceive yourself because you see the world through your eyes most of the time. The questions below remind me of the reality of what my personal relationship with God looks like, and how I truly am doing spiritually. It invites me to draw near to God, so He can draw near to me. It invites to me to seek to grow spiritually in the year ahead.
What are your answers today about these 14 questions (You owe it to yourself to be brutally honest):
- Am I closer to God than a year ago?
- Am I more rested in God’s oversight in my life?
- Do I sense a growing eternal perspective reminding me that this life is not all there is?
- Do I view my life as an investment that is accompanied by an eagerness to please God?
- Do I find hope and encouragement with God’s word? Is God speaking to me through His Word I read every day?
- Am I more of a taker or contributor? What’s the natural inclination of my life?
- Am I able to turn to God in times of pain and suffering?
- Does my worship go beyond singing songs at a weekend service?
- Have I learned to feed myself spiritually? I am responsible for my spiritual growth.
- Have I made progress over sinful habits?
- Have I embraced Grace abandoning any attempt to earn or deserve my salvation?
- Am I seeking changes in my life and am I and others seeing changes in my life? Changes like love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control?
- Am I becoming a different person?
- How am I doing spiritually, really?
Many people do New Year’s resolutions each year. I have even created a personal resolutions tool to help you on this site. Many people build annual goals or plans for their life. Are you willing to be bold enough to put a reminder on your calendar each year to go back through this spiritual health check-up process again? If you will join me in this effort, I believe we will both see God grow us, and change our lives forever. For a Christian who is seriously all-in and invested in growing closer to God during their lifetime, it is clear that our life is about becoming more like Jesus Christ through God changing us from the inside out.
Remember, you and I were never meant to experience spiritual health apart from the environment of the local church. Do you have a local church that you worship at regularly and are invested into? If not, I encourage you to visit some soon, and ask those you respect the most spiritually in your community where they attend. Perhaps you can join them for a visit this week? Perhaps you can share your answers to the above questions with them and ask them to pray for you as you walk forward over the upcoming year?