During the summer when I was 15 I got very sick. Due to a severe frontal sinus infection, I was having severe headaches and was unable to keep food down. I lost a lot of weight and was very weak. It was the first time that I had ever been really sick in my life. The Dr. prescribed some strong meds and I eventually began to feel better. I don’t know when it happened, but one morning I woke up and realized that I was well…healthy.
According to E. Stanley Jones, holiness is “spiritual health.” The Hebrews writer said, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord,” (Hebrews 12:14).
In our walk with God, there is too much attention given to spiritual sickness, that is to say, the presence and power of sin in our lives. Will redeemed people ever stop saying things like, “We’re all sinners” and “We all fail everyday.” Nonsense! We who are in Christ are the redeemed children of God. We have a testimony to demonstrate to the world, to our enemy and to our selves that we are forgiven, saved, and adopted into the family of God. We have received the indwelling Holy Spirit so that we might live holy lives and that we might love the Lord with a healthy soul. So enough already with the talk of sin and its power.
Jesus said that the greatest commandment was, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” (Mark 12:30).
To love the Lord with all your soul is to love him in holiness or “spiritual health”. It does not regard the sickness of sin above the health of redemption. It does not minimize the ugliness of sin, but takes refuge, rest and joy in the power of Christ over sin. It does not empower sin by making resistance the focus of life, but keeps a deep love of God as the focus of life. To love God with all your soul is love him beyond your sin and failures. To love with all your soul is to display holiness as the condition of your life. It is to know and acknowledge that you are spiritually healthy because of him and to express your love by living in holiness - being spiritually well...healthy.
telemicus out
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