“Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” —1 Timothy 4:7-8
One day last week, I was home with Karen about to enjoy a wonderful meal that she had prepared, and I wanted to stop and show my gratitude to God for keeping me safe on the road and for the food I was about to eat. There was a worship song playing in the background that really got a hold of my heart. No matter how good that food looked, I couldn’t eat. Instead, I listened to the song and just cried and praised God.
I realized something in that moment. Food is very important for sustaining my body. It helps my body repair itself and gives it fuel to operate. But as important as physical food might be, spiritual food is more important.
I would rather die of starvation than for God to cut off my spiritual food source.
Let me say that again: If I had to choose between physical food and the spiritual food only God can provide, it would be no contest. I’d choose spiritual food every time.
Do you ever think about how important spiritual food is for sustaining us? Just as physical food sustains our bodies, spiritual food sustains our souls. And yet, we often forget about how much we need it.
We can partake of spiritual food anytime we want. God is constantly offering it to us. But we reject His offers and act like it’s not important until we get to the point where realize just how badly we need it.
Do you remember the story of Mary and her sister Martha that we talked about before? Martha was concerned about preparing the physical food, but Mary knew what mattered more was getting spiritual nourishment from spending time with Jesus. We need to learn that lesson ourselves.
Last week, we talked about our need to stay spiritually full. This week, I’d like to talk about how we do that.
We all have good intentions for our spiritual lives. We set out to do the right things and grow closer to God. But then life gets in the way and we get distracted. We fall short on spending the time we need to with God.
That’s why today, I want to offer you some practical steps for keeping your spiritual tank full. I use these in my own life, and I believe that they can help each us avoid becoming spiritual empty.
1. Give up unreasonable expectations.
First of all, we have to have the right expectations going into our relationship with God. We know it’s important to grow spiritually, but we have to go in with the right mindset.
It doesn’t help to compare yourself to other people. Their relationship with God isn’t the same as your relationship with God. What works for someone else may not work for you. What’s important is finding your own way of spending time with Him and keeping your spiritual tank full.
You’ve got to start small and grow from there. Spend a couple minutes in Bible reading and prayer. Then the next day, do a little more. We should always seek to do better and spend more time with God, but you have to start somewhere.
2. Get over guilt.
Whenever we mess up, we tend to shy away from God. Maybe we do something we know we’re not supposed to or we miss a couple of days of quiet time with Him, and that pushes us further away. We can’t let guilt come between us and God.
You have to learn to say, “I messed up today. But tomorrow’s a new day, and I’m going to get it right.” That’s how we start to grow.
Satan will try to use guilt against us as a tool for keeping us from spending time with God. But if we allow him to do that, we’re going to become spiritually empty in no time. The only way we can try to do better is by learning to overcome guilt and try again.
3. Don’t compartmentalize your life.
We have a tendency to think about our lives in segments. You’ve got your spiritual life, your work life, your family life, your hobbies, and so on. But that’s not a healthy way of looking at things.
You should be the same person in church on Sunday morning that you are at home, at work, at a friend’s house, at the golf course, at the grocery story, or anywhere else. Our faith should impact every part of our lives, not just the time we set aside specifically for God. We can’t compartmentalize like that.
How can a believer act one way in church and another way out in the world? It’s a sign that their tank is empty, and they need to get spiritually filled.
4. Stop.
Do you remember the first part of our series a few weeks ago? We need to learn to be still. Stillness is a key part of spending time with God.
Pause; put everything on hold; take a break. And just spend time with God.
That might require us to learn to say no to some things. There are a lot of good things out there, but we need to being doing what God has for us. We need to learn to put everything else away and focus on our relationship with Him.
5. Ask yourself some questions.
I’m a firm believer in questions. I think they’re the best way for us to learn, to grow, and to become better people. When we ask questions, we are giving ourselves the opportunity to find out something we didn’t know before.
Here are a few questions you need to be considering consistently in your spiritual life:
- How much time am I spending connecting with God?
- What do I need to stop and what do I need to do in order to be a better follower of Jesus?
- What am I actually doing to learn more about Him?
- How am I experiencing excitement in my relationship with Jesus? If I’m not, why?
Being a Christian ought to be an exciting, joy-filled life. But we miss out on it when we let our spiritual tanks get empty.
Many people, believers included, don’t have peace in this world. Why is that? Could it be because their spiritual tank is empty? I believe so.
No matter what pain you’re going through, no matter what fear you might have, no matter what your problems might be, when you connect with God, he’s going to make things much better. He’s the one who can help us get through what we’re going through and come out on the other side better for it.
God is in control, and we serve Him. He’s got it. All He asks of us is that we come to Him to be spiritually filled.
He wants to spend time with us. He wants to fill us up. I hope and pray that these steps will help each of us stay spiritually filled as we navigate our daily lives.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week.
To your fitness!