Inspirational article from Joanne Lowe

SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; it there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things”

Philippians 4: 6 – 8 King James Version

I take a One a Day multivitamin every morning when I get up. Then I spend time with Jesus and take my spiritual vitamins. We wonder why we are so weak spiritually and emotionally; it is because we don’t take time for Jesus the first thing every morning. I have heard many people make the comment “It is too hard to get up before work every morning and read the Bible and spend time with Jesus”.

However, these same people have no problems at all getting up at three or four in the morning to go fishing or go on a trip. If we really love Jesus and long to be in His presence and fellowship with Him then we won’t even think about making excuses, we will have such an eagerness to be with Him that we won’t be able to stay in bed. Our level of commitment to Him depends on how much we love Him!

It is very important that we take care of ourselves physically, but if we are spending more time on our bodies than on our hearts we are making Jesus very sad. When I lived in Oklahoma a man once told me “I exercise four hours a day so I can keep in shape and be able to defend my family if necessary”. That is wonderful and he is to be commended for his concern and loyalty to his family to protect them from danger. Yet many times this same man yelled at his family, cursed them and abused them himself. It is far more important to be kind and loving to your family than it is to defend them physically. This man may physically save the life of a member of his family but he is killing them emotionally because of his hatred and abuse.

All of his physical exercise and desire to protect his family from physical harm was meaningless in the eyes of Jesus because of the anger in his heart toward his family. Jesus is not impressed with the strength of our bodies; He is concerned and touched with our hearts and how loving we are to people. One day this man will stand before a Holy God and give an account for the way he treated his family.

If today you are feeling weak emotionally and spiritually, don’t blame Jesus. He has already given us vitamins and told us how to live a peaceful and happy life but you have to be the one to humble yourself and ask Him to help you. You have to admit that you are powerless without Him. There is no person on this earth who can love others as He has commanded us to love them without Him because Jesus is Love! Are you taking your spiritual vitamins when you get up in the morning?

Joanne Lowe

February 7, 2007

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