SPIRITUAL SICKNESS

Lately writing has been difficult for me. Normally when I write, the thoughts just sort of all flow together and when the last word is put down...I just know it is finished. The last few posts have been coming in pieces. I've thought about that and talked to God about it. His answer to me was the same one He has given me for other things lately. Not enough time in the Word and talking to Him. The thing about that is...I know He is right. Not just because He is God and is always right, but because I know I have been failing in those areas. So, I have been trying to do better. Then this week hit and reading has been pretty much out of the question, but...I can still talk to God. So while I was not sleeping I talked and...

I have spent the last few nights mostly awake because of being sick. Last night I was feeling pretty bad and it came to me that physical sickness is a lot like spiritual sickness. Sometimes when you get physically sick it's because you didn't take good care of yourself. Maybe you don't get enough sleep, take your vitamins, eat right, who knows what else. If you do this long enough you become susceptible to physical viruses until finally you get one. The same thing can happen in your spiritual life. Maybe you stop reading the Word as much as you should. When you do that, eventually you stop talking to God on a regular basis and maybe you find reasons to stay away from church or other forms of fellowship with other Christians. You start breaking good habits to pick up some bad ones...basically, you get a spiritual virus.

Some things I have noticed about the physical and spiritual side kind of relate to each other. On the physical side you end up in bed tossing and turning, agitated and not sleeping. You hurt all over, have a headache and numerous other symptoms. With a spiritual virus you are restless, agitated and don't sleep because you know you aren't doing the things you should. Things in life just aren't going right and you don't seem to have the closeness to the Lord that you did. You don't hurt all over outwardly but you hurt all over inwardly. You just have a feeling of turmoil inside instead of peace. Your head hurts because you worry about what is wrong between you and God.

So what do you do when you have a virus. Physically...you rest, try to sleep and do your best to stay away from everyone else so you don't give it to them. On the spiritual side you...start getting back into the good habits you used to have. Read the Word, talk to God and anything else you used to do to keep yourself on the right track. And remember that no matter what, God hasn't changed the way He feels about you.

In Jeremiah 31:3 He says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

Psalm 36:5 (New Living Translation)
5 Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.

Psalm 136:26 (New Living Translation)
26 Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His faithful love endures forever.

This last example is the greatest act of love anyone will ever do for you.

John 3:16 (The Message)
16-18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

Remember, it's Christmas and Jesus...Gods Son...came to earth to live and then die for you. Will you live for Him?