Don’t Forget to Feed Your Spirit, with the Ever Living Word of God!
I think you'll agree that it's important that we care for our bodies, which the apostle Paul says "are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you." And today we're fortunate to have so much information telling us how to take care of our physical bodies--the best foods to eat, what supplements to take, how many hours of sleep we need, and ways to exercise. But we can do all the right things and be strong on the outside and still be weak and weary inside.
I'm sure that's why the apostle Paul prayed "that God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man" (Ephesians 3:16). He recognized that we have an inner man, and that inner man is the core of who we really are. It is our identity. It controls how we respond to life--our attitudes and our thoughts. The inner man is strengthened by God through the Spirit. We have to take time, we have to find room in our busy lives, to let the Spirit of God minister life to us, to be touched by the Word of God and the very presence of Almighty God.
When we have a strong inner man, we have the strength to walk a victorious life. If we neglect our inner man, we'll be weak, undisciplined, and weary inside. In fact, some of the hurts that we suffer come because we're not engaging our spiritual man, but rather our flesh. We are saying negative things about ourselves that weaken us. We're in strife with our spouse. We're talking about how much we don't like our job. Rather, we need to engage our inner spiritual man, so we can quit having these unnecessary hurts. We need to take this command center, this spirit man, and walk in a posture of faith, of self-discipline, of confidence.
Today I encourage you to develop your personal relationship with God on a daily basis. Joel's dad used to say, "Some people feed their physical bodies three hot meals a day, but they feed their inner man one cold snack a week." He would add that you need to get the Word in you when you don't need it, so it will come out of you when you do need it. When you open your Bible and get into the living, breathing Word of God, you are feeding your spirit. Ask Him to speak to you through His Word and strengthen you through His Spirit. Make it a habit to renew and strengthen your inner man because that's how your life will be transformed. You'll find a renewed vitality and power of God in your soul that makes all the difference.
I'm sure that's why the apostle Paul prayed "that God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man" (Ephesians 3:16). He recognized that we have an inner man, and that inner man is the core of who we really are. It is our identity. It controls how we respond to life--our attitudes and our thoughts. The inner man is strengthened by God through the Spirit. We have to take time, we have to find room in our busy lives, to let the Spirit of God minister life to us, to be touched by the Word of God and the very presence of Almighty God.
When we have a strong inner man, we have the strength to walk a victorious life. If we neglect our inner man, we'll be weak, undisciplined, and weary inside. In fact, some of the hurts that we suffer come because we're not engaging our spiritual man, but rather our flesh. We are saying negative things about ourselves that weaken us. We're in strife with our spouse. We're talking about how much we don't like our job. Rather, we need to engage our inner spiritual man, so we can quit having these unnecessary hurts. We need to take this command center, this spirit man, and walk in a posture of faith, of self-discipline, of confidence.
Today I encourage you to develop your personal relationship with God on a daily basis. Joel's dad used to say, "Some people feed their physical bodies three hot meals a day, but they feed their inner man one cold snack a week." He would add that you need to get the Word in you when you don't need it, so it will come out of you when you do need it. When you open your Bible and get into the living, breathing Word of God, you are feeding your spirit. Ask Him to speak to you through His Word and strengthen you through His Spirit. Make it a habit to renew and strengthen your inner man because that's how your life will be transformed. You'll find a renewed vitality and power of God in your soul that makes all the difference.