Fill in the blank:
What are you most proud of?
What brings you the most joy?
Perhaps more than anything else, how you answer these questions reveals the state of your spiritual health and condition.
It may be that your spiritual health isn’t all that important to you. It may be that you don’t see spiritual health as the prime ingredient for: the development of personhood, positively impacting the people in your life, a secure and eternal destiny.
If spiritual health isn’t on your radar, according to the Scriptures, its evidence that God hasn’t revealed himself to you, and that you haven’t received His Spirit.
“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God…The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor 2:12, 14.
If spiritual health is on your radar, then the Scriptures provide a guideline for healthy responses to the questions above.
What are you most proud of?
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” – Jeremiah 9:23-24
Not wisdom.
Not might.
Not riches.
The spiritually healthy person is most proud of the fact that he understands and knows God.
Is this what you are most proud of?
What brings you the most joy?
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Ps 16:5-11
Not security.
Not pleasure.
Not circumstance.
Not pride.
The spiritually health person finds their joy in the presence of God.
Is this where you find your joy?
Are you a spiritually healthy person?
These two questions, “what are you most proud of” and “what brings you the most joy” should not be taken lightly or ignored. They are fundamentally important.
If you feel that your Spiritual health is not where it needs to be, the apostle James gives some clear advice.
You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4:2-10.
Ask.
Ask correctly.
Seek grace.
Submit to God.
Resist the devil.
Draw near to God.
Cleanse your hands.
Purify your hearts.
Mourn and weep.
Humble yourself.
and He will exalt you.