A couple of weeks ago, I went to our family doctor for an annual check-up which, of course, includes a stop by the lab for blood work. My biggest challenge is my cholesterol. It’s high but has been trending down for the last few years, so for now, I try to control it through diet and exercise.
Even though I’m blessed to feel healthy, it’s still a little nerve-wracking waiting for the results. Thankfully the lab processes them quickly and I usually have results within 24 hours. This time I had one elevated number, but thankfully everything looks good overall!
I was thinking about those results the next morning as I had my devotions. With a few vials of blood, the doctor can generally see what condition I’m in physically. So what if there were a test that showed how my spiritual health was?
Let’s say the scale ranged from zero to one hundred. Maybe we’d get a number for how faithful we’d been in prayer lately. What about an evaluation on our thought life or the words we’ve been using (ouch! always a struggle for me!) Has our trust in God to provide and guide us gone up or down since last year?
Just like bringing my cholesterol down, there would be some areas where we could see growth and improvement. Maybe we don’t lose our temper as quickly as used to. Or perhaps we didn’t say those critical words about someone else when they popped into our minds. In those cases, we can thank the Holy Spirit for his help!
I’m sure we’d be disappointed in some of our results. But this spiritual “test” would also show us where we need to get healthier.
I realized that morning that we do have a way to check our spiritual condition. In a sense, we can look at the Holy Spirit as our doctor. He knows our thoughts, feelings, and actions. And the tool he uses to show us our spiritual condition is the Bible.
The Holy Spirit can convict our hearts of sin as we read God’s Word. Meditating on Scripture allows Him to make it part of our lives. How often a verse that I memorized in the past – or just one that’s familiar to me – has come to mind when I need it!
Here are three steps we can take when we need a spiritual check-up.
1. Pray for our hearts and minds to be open to the Holy Spirit when he speaks.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. ~John 14:26
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to teach us of Jesus and remind us of how he wants us to live.
2. Be in the Bible.
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. ~Hebrews 4:12
Read it. Listen to it. Memorize it. Meditate on it. God’s Word is the diagnostic tool the Holy Spirit uses to show us where we need to grow.
3. Make changes.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. ~James 1:23-25
If I eat fast food every day and don’t move my body at all, my high cholesterol will only worsen. And if the Holy Spirit convicts us in an area where we’re sick spiritually, it won’t get better if we don’t make a change.
Jesus didn’t leave us here alone to figure it out. Our helper, the Holy Spirit is here to encourage and teach us.
Let’s praise the Lord for those areas in which we’re nice and healthy! And let’s ask the Holy Spirit to use God’s Word to show us where we need to make changes so we can be strong, growing Christians going forward!
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