3 WAYS TO STAY SPIRITUALLY STRONG
I seek you with all my heart, do not let me stray from your commandments (Psalm 139:11).
I wish I looked like the model in this image, but I don’t! However, I am heading out to the gym after writing this. In all honesty, though, I wish I could go once in a while and still maintain my physical stamina and flexibility.
In fact, wouldn’t it be great if fitness required little effort—and to be honest, if staying spiritually strong and vibrant didn’t demand constant effort? But-- that isn’t how God has made us!
I love meeting with a small group of younger women twice a month. Last week we finished discussing many principles for staying spiritually strong from my book on Abraham, Reaching Higher. Rather than moving on and popping the book back on my shelf I wanted to linger on the following three principles for my own growth—and to share them with you for your blessing. Here they are:
Keep Listening to God’s Voice
When Abraham heard God calling his name, he answered with eagerness, “Here I am” (Genesis 22.1). He heard God’s voice because he stayed spiritually alert and eager for any encounter with the One he revered and loved.
When you read the Word, are you listening for God’s voice?
Do you hear Him applying what you’re reading to your situation?
Do you ask Him to speak and direct your thinking or give you His perspective on an issue you’re dealing with?
I’ve never heard an audible voice, but most definitely had new thoughts, solutions, and insights that came from reading His Word and asking the Holy Spirit to speak into my situation.
2. Keep Responding to what God says
When Abraham heard God’s command about Isaac, hard as it was, he moved to obedience. Instead of resisting and even protesting, Abraham thought about all of God’s repeated promises regarding Isaac, and “reasoned that God could raise the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19). When God calls you to obedience, cling to these truths:
God loves you and wants your best.
God is wiser than you are and can see the future.
God has loving reasons for what He asks, gives or withholds.
3. Keep Trusting God
When Abraham saw the place God had told him about, he said to his servants, “Stay here…. while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” (Genesis 22:5). By their actions both father and son affirmed their heart commitment to the living God. Isaac trusted his father, Abraham, implicitly, and Abraham trusted God with every fiber of his being: “being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:21).
Brennan Manning said, “I believe it means more to God to say I trust You, than to say I love You.
Trusting God, believing He knows and cares and will take you through hard places, is a growth area for every one of us.
Life does have hard places—places where we can sink into despair, cynicism, and spiritual coldness. But hard places are God-allowed growing places, if we turn to our source of strength.
Abraham’s spiritual journey is an inspiring example of what God can do with a life fully surrendered to Him. Is that who you want to be? A surrendered follower, experiencing the wonder of a God-shaped life? If so, Keep Listening, Keep Responding, and Keep Trusting.
Stay spiritually strong, my friends,Would love to hear how YOU do this!
Poppy
(Photo credit: GraphicStock Photo)
For more helpful tips, check out this study: Reaching Higher.