We all know that if we eat a constant diet of junk food, candy, and honestly delicious fast food, we probably won’t have a healthy body. We’ve got to eat a healthy diet and exercise if we want to all we can be to do all God wants us to do. And even more importantly to experience joy and peace in our lives that’s hard to do if we’re abusing our bodies.
The challenge is that to eat the right things isn’t nearly as easy as reaching for those little packets of cookies and chips and swinging through the drive-through. It takes work and planning for a consistently healthy diet and workout plan.
It’s no different with our souls—
What we take in mentally and how we exercise it by putting what we learn into consistent practice makes a huge difference in our mental and spiritual health.
If we intentionally—and the remainder of this will give you specifics that have worked out for me to do this—put in things that are based on God’s Word and make them a part of our spiritual life, we’ll have a life of increasing peace and joy. Even if we are starting out in fairly negative places in those areas, no matter what the exterior circumstances our life throws at us we can make positive changes.
I’m not sharing this from a theoretical, this-is-what-a-Bible-teacher-ought-to-say position. I’m sharing it from a little over a year of fighting hard for spiritual health.
When the Lord took my beloved husband Paul home to be with Him, in a sudden and totally unexpected heart attack just as we had totally torn our home apart for a complete remodeling and rebuilding, my life, my emotions, my everything was completely demolished. I couldn’t even go to the grocery store without falling apart because Paul always drove me everywhere, and he was always waiting in the car for me when my shopping was done. For months, I couldn’t go back to the car from the store without sitting down inside and sobbing.
I knew this couldn’t go on. I knew the Lord had a reason for leaving me here, work for me to do. I knew Paul was safe at home with Jesus. I was intellectually at peace with much of that, but there were many thoughts and questions that were not healthy that swirled through my head and heart. I questioned God as to what to do so I wasn’t tormented in my thoughts and crying everything time I got into the car?
We all have past pains, sins, traumas, sadness, current life challenges that dominate our thoughts
No matter what our situation, what our loss or regret or past, again, what to do?
We know God has current plans for us. We know He wants us to live in peace and joy—but HOW to make that reality? We know God doesn’t want us stuck in past questions, regrets, condemnations, “what ifs.”
What follows is what I’ve done and continue to do that has helped give me peace and hope.
It started with the Lord reminding me that what we think about, what we put into our minds, what our minds return to as we go through the day and toss fitfully at night, matters tremendously. We are in charge of that.
As the saying goes, “Garbage in; garbage out.”
We may not be consuming mentally things that are specifically bad for us or evil, but much of what we take in through mindless TV watching, social media scrolling or not thinking intentionally at all, we also aren’t building up our spiritual health and putting peace and joy into our lives. Following is how I’ve gone about changing that. I’ve put in links to the resources whenever possible.
Foundation: every day I start with time reading my Bible and praying.
For the Bible reading, I read through the Bible every year using the plan I created on Bible805. Here is the direct link to the downloadable Bible-reading schedules:
If you’d like to look at why reading through the Bible in this way is beneficial, some videos and an e-book are available here:
If the whole Bible is too much, here is a plan for reading through the NEW TESTAMENT in chronological order
Bible reading is a great foundation, but I needed more
I realized I truly needed to FILL my mind with the things of God if I was not going to drown in negative thinking and despair and so I intentionally added:
- Christian books
- Lots of Christian video and podcasts
What follows in the links to books and videos that are ones that have personally helped me currently—there are so many good materials out there and if these don’t speak to any needs you have, pray for wisdom on what does. Google the Christian topic you are interested in—there will often be good links and I’ll be working on recommending more, but for now…..
Any books by C.S. Lewis and Dallas Willard are always highly recommended and I think I’ve read all each of them wrote. In this phase of my life, the Lord has directed me to two writers/speakers I never heard of previously and from traditions very different than my Presbyterian home. Following are their names and then after that, some of their books and links to videos. Both of them have MANY, many videos and I have found all of them encouraging.
The two authors I’m learning lots from currently are:
Pete Greig
Books:
How to Pray, a simple guide for normal people
How to Hear God, a simple guide for normal people
A few video links, but YouTube has many more:
Silence and Persistence with Pete Greig—this is a good one to introduce you to both of them and from that YouTube will suggest many others (all good)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDT3AYdNjnY
This one is another good one to introduce you to a group that I’ve been listening to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMS5QNI4ABU
Tyler Staton
Book: The Familiar Stranger: (Re)Introducing the Holy Spirit to Those in Search of an Experiential Spirituality
There are so many videos by both and I honestly allow YouTube to suggest ones by the people in the first group in the first video above and they are all helpful.
Just listen or watch whenever you can. You don’t have to memorize their content or interact with it. Simply allow these people to fill your mind and hearts with thoughts other than ones about yourself.
One last thing:
Lectio365—This is an app on your phone, it is free, and I use it daily. It is from the 24/7 prayer group, and it has 3x a day guided prayers and meditations. I have found it incredibly helpful in filling my mind—especially at night as it is the last thing I listen to before I sleep.
Don’t give up—new diets and new ways of thinking take time to make a change
I have a long way to go to be the person whose mind and heart are always directed to the Lord Jesus and filled with thoughts of Him and how I can better represent Him and the Kingdom of God but this intentional, daily focus on taking in content that is filled with Biblical truth is making a huge difference.
And somewhere in this new adventure, one day the Lord reminded me that even though my big guy might no longer be waiting for me in the car, that my Jesus was and He was never going to leave.