Set Apart: How Spiritually Healthy people See the World Differently
Set Apart: How Spiritually Healthy people See the World Differently
A test for whether you are spiritually healthy or not
What separates people who are spiritually healthy from those who are not?
In the course of my life, I’ve come across tons of Christians. Baby Christians, growing Christians, backsliding ones, stale Christians, established leaders, fruitful ones. What separates spiritually healthy people from those that are not?
Here is one way that I’ve observed over and over again:
Spiritually healthy people see what most consider liabilities in their life actually as blessings.
Let me explain with a true story:
I remember hearing a story of a dad who just was just in a bad place. He was so stressed with life that he never wanted to hang with his kids. They would come up to him and want to play with him, but he saw them as annoying.
It wasn’t until he was older, and all his kids grew up, and no longer hung with him, that he realized that he made a terrible mistake. But he couldn’t see it at the moment. He didn’t realize that he didn’t want to hang with them not because he didn’t love them. It was because they demanded something from him that he didn’t have – his energy, his joy, and his peace.
You see, when we’re not spiritually healthy, we see blessings (i.e. children) as liabilities. When we’re not overflowing with God’s power, love, and peace inside of us, we don’t have the ability to see the world correctly. This is true for anything that God has entrusted into our care-Our ministry, our work, and our families. We have negative attitudes about it. We see blessings as liabilities–not the other way around. And that’s bad.
But spiritually healthy people can see their negative situations as a blessing. Paul even saw being in prison as a blessing because he could tell people about Jesus (and write letters to the church!) Jesus saw the cross even as joyful because it meant that people could come to know God (Hebrews 10).
That’s the difference between spiritually healthy people and those who are not. They can see their toughest situations as blessings. That’s why their lives are fruitful. They are fruitful because every “bad” situation in their life, they are able to turn it around and see the good. They are able to see good because they see God.
How about you? This may be a great litmus test for your spiritual health.
How do you view the areas of your life currently? Do you spend more time grumbling? Or do you see divine opportunity ripe for blessing?
You were made for greatness,
Phil
Prayer and patience are intertwined and give us greater perspective. The more time we spend with God and engage Him in relationship, the more we see things as He sees them.
This was so incredibly helpful, my dear friend. It's making me much more aware of when I push my wife and kids away, and treat them like liabilities, like you said!