Why You Need to Exercise Spiritual Strength Today

Posted on May 11, 2017 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Lisa Whittle

A few weeks ago, my family visits beautiful California for my son’s graduation from high school. We spend nine glorious days in this gorgeous state. On the last day we find ourselves in La Jolla, one of the most breathtaking stops on our trip. The salty air calls to us, and before we know it, we find our family of five in kayaks, paddling the Pacific Ocean, being led by a tanned, knowledgeable guide.

“This is the house of Dr. Seuss,” the guide says as we stop for a minute for his commentary, pointing back up to the shore. “And this one, the owners of Vanity Fair.” Our eyes cannot take in all the lavish homes they see, there are so many. Huge homes. Majestic. All built into the side of a mountain.

And then he points to the homes, mansions really, closest to the edge of the water, sloping downhill uncomfortably. He tells us about how these homes, once worth millions of dollars, are now almost uninhabitable, with warning signs on the front door about how one day they will likely fall into the ocean. And how as beautiful as they are, no one wants to live in them. The erosion of the land is simply too big a risk to take to invest such high dollars in, since one day they will all slide away.

Erosion is not just for fancy homes on the ocean. It’s a reality of human life that can make other beautiful things go away too.

Erosion: to eat into or away; destroy by slow consumption or disintegration. It’s usually the slow death of things that take the good things from us.

I think of my marriage and how sometimes it begs for my attention and I push it down, push it away because I’m too busy to deal with it today. I think of my friendships I need to check on and nurture, but because I don’t have the energy, I never pick up the phone. I think of my spiritual life and how it’s been days since I’ve had a really good personal time with God and how I just keep saying I will do it tomorrow.

And I know: All of these things won’t die instantly (maybe knowing that is a problem). They will die slowly over time by means of erosion—not paying attention, not taking care of things when they need to be, believing doing it sometime soon is soon enough.

How will we fight this slippery slope in our spiritual lives? By our everyday, small but mighty rising ups, standing firms. By getting low. We make deposits into our lives, practice spiritual strength training every day. We build up our own stability.

We reject erosion by these everyday choices and commitments so it never becomes our fate. We rise up and stand firm so erosion is not allowed to slide into our lives and slide us away. We live the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:13 for the rest of our lives: “Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.”

And we remember most of all that it is always and only the power of God that gives us the courage to do anything. It will only be His power to help us walk Jesus strong.