FBC Daily Devotional – December 9, 2020

Well a good Wednesday to you trust your week is going well as you've reached the middle of this another week the second week of December looking forward to marching toward the

Christmas holiday as Well as the end of the year and a new year dawning very soon very shortly

Well, I was reading yesterday in the newspaper article about the you know, the local newspaper about all of the kovat problems going on in our region and was particularly drawn to an inset box that itemized several things you can do to take precautions against kovat 19 and this made me think of John's letter his third letter that he wrote third

John and The second verse he's writing to a friend and he says this he says I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul and And what struck me about this verse is that John is praying for not only the spiritual well -being of his friend, but for his physical well -being his physical health and his prop his prosperity in life

And we're really good about the first two things and thinking about those aren't we you know being concerned about our prosperity and our physical health and all of the

Emphasis these days with kovat 19 and and staying away from it and keeping free from it and everything else

It's all well and good But I got to wondering With all this emphasis on our physical health

What if what if our physical health was only as vibrant as our spiritual health?

and By the way, that is the connection that John makes right? He says I pray that it may go well with you and you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul

As it goes well with your soul So I think we're remiss if we give all our attention and energies to being in good physical health and neglect spiritual health spiritual vitality

So with that in mind, um I want to I want to focus these next several days on this very thing about our about seeking to encourage and maintain spiritual health

Just as much as we want to maintain our physical health and what I want to do with that is draw some parallels between the precautions against kovat 19 and What we should be doing regarding our spiritual vitality and I would suggest that We need to begin with information with information so it's helpful to have these recommendations from The county health department and from our government and so forth

And here's the list that was in yesterday's paper said this and i'm quoting its title precautions to slow the spread

Residents are strongly encouraged to hear adhere to all of the required precautions necessary to protect their families

And the community slowing the spread of kovat 19 number one. There's six of these things number one stay home except for essential business, even if you're not experiencing symptoms because presumably you don't want to get sick and Presumably you might be sick and not know it and pass it on to somebody else number two

Practice social distancing make sure to stay at making sure to stay at least six feet from others when in public number three

Avoid close contact with people who are sick If you're sick at home do your best to self -isolate from others living in the home number four

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use an alcohol -based hand sanitizer with at least 60 % alcohol number five

Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue then throw the tissue in the trash And lastly number six avoid touching your eyes nose and mouth

All right, all that's information and that information is given to you To help slow the spread so that you don't get somebody else sick or you don't get sick yourself

Now the problem with the information that is given to us regarding our physical health

Is that the is the reliability factor? We we can feel fairly confident in most of the things that we read but you also know, you know full well

That science is not exact There's not an exact science in some in many of these things in fact,

I mean i've lived long enough to Be told don't eat eggs. Don't eat more than an egg a week or something like that Some ridiculously know because they're bad for you

And now that's completely reversed you told eat eggs they're good for you or Eat margarine

Instead of butter don't use don't use butter. It's bad for you. Eat margarine

And yet that's been reversed and he said well You shouldn't eat very much margarine butter is better for you than margarine and and on and on we can go and probably there's

Conflicting opinions on those things themselves, right? Well, that's no less true with uh, what's going on in the in the covid virus

How many times in the last six months has the cdc reversed itself for the world health organization? And yeah, it's just so confusing and so frustrating

But but listen, here's the deal When it comes to our spiritual health, there isn't such confusion.

We don't have to be so frustrated Because we're told That god has given us what we need we have the information

Available to us for our spiritual health and vitality now, let me see.

Let me let me just make clear That there's a presupposition here and the presupposition is that you have spiritual life

You can't have spiritual health if you're not spiritually alive Bible tells us we're dead in trespasses and sins unless we're born from above Unless we're regenerated by the grace of god through the spirit of god

And and we put our faith and trust in jesus christ as our personal as our personal savior

But if we have come to faith in christ if we are spiritually alive Then we can also be spiritually healthy

First peter second peter chapter one verses two through five Tell us this that god has given us the information we need for our spiritual health.

Listen to what he says Peter says may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of god and of jesus our lord his divine power

Has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness or to our spiritual vitality if you will

And he's granted us these things through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence

By which he also has granted to us His precious and very great promises

So that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature Having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire

So what peter is telling us? Is that when it comes to having the information necessary for spiritual health?

We have it we have it from god and therefore it is absolutely reliable We have all that we need for our spiritual health and vitality

So I encourage you and I trust that you do go often To the source of information for your spiritual health and vitality

Go to the word of god make it a regular part of your day. Make it a part of your diet

Where you spend time in the word? Every day Not just on sundays, though.

That's vitally important. We'll see that later in our series here but uh, but but daily

Take part take the vitamins of the word the information that you need

To keep you spiritually healthy and vital Well, we'll look at more of these ideas in the next couple of days and I hope you can join us for that consideration of how to be spiritually healthy

So our father in our god, we thank you that you have given us what we need for our spiritual health spiritual vitality

I pray that we would take in that information that will Indeed give us strength spiritually

And we pray this in jesus name and for his sake. Amen All right, well this is wednesday and um on wednesday evening we normally would have a midweek service

We're not going to be doing that because of the covet thing. No in -person midweek service

However tonight at seven o 'clock. I will be doing a live stream bible study prayer time