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Time for a Check-up?
Have you ever done a health check-up? Most of us have – any time we go to the doctor, we have to fill out some sort of assessment or questionnaire that lets the doctor or nurse know how our health is.
What about a spiritual check-up? When was the last time you did a spiritual check-up? It sounds a little funny, doesn’t it? It’s not like the Holy Spirit is waiting with a blood pressure cuff and a pulse oximeter to measure your vitals … but maybe we need some vitals measured.
Are We Really Making Progress?
The only way we know if we are making progress toward a goal is if we have measurements to go by.
If you have ever tried to lose weight/get healthy, one thing the experts recommend is to take body measurements because that can be a better indicator of how well you’re doing than the number on the scale can. Numbers on the scale can fluctuate with different circumstances – even within the same day! – but body measurements give a more reliable standard to go by.
How do we Measure Spiritual Progress?
In our spiritual lives, we often don’t know what measurements we should use. We don’t know what we should even be measuring!
What does it mean to “be a disciple?”
What does “becoming like Jesus” look like?
How do we know if we’re “getting it right?”
Do we just need to read our Bibles, go to church, and pray before we eat or go to bed? Do we need to go on a missions trip or support a missionary? What about feeding the hungry, or helping the homeless? Sometimes the options before us can be overwhelming!
The Fruit of the Spirit & Spiritual Disciplines are the measurement tools that help us determine our progress in becoming more like Christ
How do we know if we are spiritually healthy?
We Don't have to Guess what spiritual health looks like!
Thankfully, the Bible actually sheds some light on the subject for us! The Apostle Paul writes in many of his letters about what it means to follow Christ and demonstrate the active power of the Holy Spirit living in us. Here are some of the instructions he gives to the churches he planted on how to live lives “worthy of the gospel”:
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another. ~ Galatians 5:22-26, NIV
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ~Eph. 4:1-3
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” ~Romans 12:9-18, NIV
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ~Colossians 3:12-14, NIV
Notice any similarities in the lists?
There are some elements that keep popping up – even if they are worded a little differently in each one:
Love
Patience (bearing with each other)
Humility (honor others above yourselves, do not be proud, do not be conceited)
Peace (live in harmony)
Did you see some of the other instructions scattered throughout?
Be joyful in hope
Faithful in prayer
Forgive one another
Share with those in need/practice hospitality
Be in unity with the believers
Wow – that’s a pretty hefty list, isn’t it?
Go ahead, take a minute. I’ll be here.
Maybe we aren’t quite as healthy as we thought we were.
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Getting a Wake-Up Call
A few years ago – right in the middle of the Covid crisis, actually, I finally got up the nerve to talk to my doctor about my struggles and suspicions that I had ADHD. It was something I’d coped with for so long, that it almost felt like it wasn’t worth it (wasn’t that something that kids had?) but my coping mechanisms weren’t working so well any more, and well… I was a bit at a loss. So I went in for a regular check-up with that on my list of things to ask about.
As part of the check-up, I had to fill out a mental health evaluation. It had been a rough season, and like I said, my coping mechanisms weren’t working so well lately, and I filled out the form honestly.
When the doctor walked in the room and looked at the form, she looked up and asked me, “Have you ever been hospitalized for mental illness?”
Friends. That was a wakeup call. I didn’t think things had gotten that bad – I felt like I was drowning for sure, but I was so used to feeling overwhelmed all the time that it just felt … “more” than the normal overwhelm, I guess.
Needless to say, I walked out of that appointment with another appointment scheduled to see a psychiatrist, and my primary said I could discuss my questions about ADHD with him then. (It did turn out that my overwhelm was the untreated ADHD combined with all the chaos of life plus Covid, by the way – who knew that ADHD could actually get worse as you get older?!)
I say all that to say this:
Sometimes our spiritual health is like my ADHD overwhelm. We are so used to feeling a certain way that we forget (or don’t even know!) what “normal” is supposed to feel like.
We need to unlearn habits that have taught us to perform spiritually.
We need to rest in the presence of the Spirit, who restores us.
We need to find our identity in Christ, who makes us new creations, and gives us new life.
We need to be in the presence of the Father who loves us unconditionally, and for no other reason than we are His.
Forming New Habits
Through that process, we need to form new, healthy habits. We need to, as Paul says, “put off your old self…. To be made new in the attitude of your minds and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:22-24, NIV)
The first step to doing that is assessing where we are.
The fruit of the Spirit is a pretty good indicator of how our spiritual life is in regard to “righteousness and holiness,” so let’s start there, and to see how our spiritual practices are, we should probably check those out, too – at least the basics. 🙂
Performing a Spiritual Check-up
“But… how do I do that?”
There are a lot of options! Here are a few:
You could keep a journal about it,
you can find an assessment online to take (there are both free and paid ones),
or…
you could grab the free printable I made just for you!
It’s a 2-page document that walks you through the first step of assessing how well the Fruit of the Spirit is demonstrated in your life. One page is the instruction sheet (it’s not complicated, I promise!) and the second page is the actual printable.
It’s a pretty handy little tool, if I do say so myself.
Click the link below to snag your copy!
Have you ever done a Spiritual Assessment/Check-Up before? How did it help you? Let us know in the comment section below!
