Recently, I attended a presentation on heart attack prevention. The speaker reminded us to make healthy lifestyle choices that help reduce the risks of having a heart attack. We were told that not smoking, eating the right foods, maintaining a proper weight, reducing and managing stress, and participating in physical activities can contribute to a healthy heart.
In Proverbs we find some instruction can make us spiritually healthy (Proverbs 4:23):
Keep your mouth right (Proverbs 4:24). Our Lord says, “Whatever is in your heart determines what you say” (Matthew 12:34-37). Our words should be godly (2 Timothy 2:16), wholesome and encouraging (Ephesians 4:29), gracious and attractive (Colossians 4:6). This means speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
Keep your eyes right (Proverbs 4:25). The eyes are the most influential parts of the body. What the eyes see, the heart wants (Genesis 3:6; Matthew 5:28). Keeping our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2) will overcome our “craving for everything we see” (1 John 2:16).
Keep your ears right (Proverbs 4:20-22, 5:1-2). Listen carefully to God’s Word. Let God’s Word penetrate deep into your heart (Proverbs 5:21), and you will live (Proverbs 4:4). For God’s words are “life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body” (Proverbs 4:22 NIV; John 6:68).
Keep your feet right (Proverbs 4:26-27). Be careful where you walk (Proverbs 4:11-15), with whom you walk (Proverbs 2:20), and how you walk (Jeremiah 6:16). Walk as Jesus did (1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 2:6), led by His Spirit (Galatians 5:16,25), in light (1 John 1:7), in love, in obedience (2 John 1:6), and in truth (3 John 1:3-4).
Choose to avoid the risks that lead to spiritual sickness. Use your mouth, eyes, ears, and feet to pursue a healthy lifestyle in Jesus today.
More:
Give me an eagerness for Your laws rather than a love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through Your Word (Psalm 119:36-37).
Next:
What lifestyle choices should you make for a healthier spiritual life? How does Jesus’ example help you live a healthy life?
Hoverjeff on January 11, 2011 at 8:00 am
Enjoyed very much the devotion today. I always like ones with lots of verses backing up the points made.
Thank you K.T. Sim
eppistle on January 11, 2011 at 8:50 am
John Ortberg writes the following in a Christianity Today article entitled “The ‘We’
We Want to Be”: When I was growing up we used to sing a song about the body in Sunday school: “Oh, be careful little eyes what you see, Oh, be careful little eyes what you see,
For the Father up above is looking down in love,
So be careful little eyes what you see.”
The following verses were “be careful little hands what you do” and “be careful little feet where you go.”
I never liked that song.
It sounded ominous. It sounded like the kind of Sunday school song that George Orwell would write.
But Rich Mouw suggested it could be interpreted another way. It could mean that little eyes should be careful to see what Jesus would see when he looks on our world; that little feet should go to those places of loneliness and suffering where his feet would go; that little hands should do the acts of love and compassion that his hands would do.
Perhaps the body of Christ becomes beautiful when we all help each other be the eyes and feet and hands of the one we follow.”
Today, let’s use the members of our body as instruments of righteousness and compassion.
dr.lightsey on January 11, 2011 at 12:11 pm
eppistle;
Good response. I say Amen to that! I also remember that song from my childhood.
daisymarygoldr on January 11, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Thanks for a healthy and wholesome post! Jesus showed us by His example how to not offer the parts of our body to sin (Heb 4:15). And the lifestyle choices that I make now in my life will help me become more like God’s Son (Rom 8:29).
Regarding eating the right foods, an unhealthy spiritual diet will lead to spiritual sickness. Nowadays, many are tired and bored to read the Bible which is God’s provision of daily spiritual Manna for us. Instead we crave for books that delight and cater to our sensual gratification.
Feeding on books that promote old wives’ tales—teachings that reject the truth and chase after myths will bring spiritual leanness to our souls. Fictional writings may appeal to our sense of imagination by providing us with an emotional high. But these are worthless things—junk food full of empty calories.
We are what we eat. Those who feast on God’s Word will stay strong even while suffering trials. Spiritual junk food that does not teach the wholesome truth of God will neither nourish our spiritual health nor sustain our spirits to stay healthy.
Why waste money gorging myself on food that will never give me strength (Isa 55:2)?