Why We Value Spiritual Health

Being spiritually healthy means daily evaluating your heart to see if there is anything hindering growth.   "Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"  Psalm 139:23-24   A heart that is spiritually dead "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.  Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!"  2 Corinthians 13:5   A heart that is spiritually alive Alive, but there is blockage (lack of spiritual vitality; energy; passion) Alive and thriving.   Being spiritually healthy means that you are consistently growing in Christ   There is no growing as a follower of Christ apart from abiding in Christ.   "Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in Me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:4-5    Increasing in the knowledge of His will. (Colossians 1:9) Living in a way that honors Christ. (Colossians 1:10) Giving evidence of Christ in me (Colossians 1:10)   Being spiritually healthy means that you are connected to the body of Christ.   "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."  Hebrews 10:25   "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, bondservants or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit . . .The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you' . . . that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together."  1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 21, 25-26   To believe you can be a growing follower of Christ without being connected to the body of Christ is like saying a branch can produce apples without it being connected to an apple tree.   Being spiritually healthy means that you are fulfilling your calling as a disciple of Christ.   "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."  Ephesians 4:1-3   " . . . when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."  Ephesians 4:16b