Pastor Mitch McDonald, Sun Lakes Community Church
If you’re reading this article, that means that we made it through yet one more year. Hopefully, 2023 was a great year for you. I hope you had new experiences, made new memories, or learned something new this year. I also hope you are ready to go for 2024.
In December our church hosted a seminar on nutrition for hypertension. The focus was on physical health but touched on the importance of spiritual health as well. We were challenged to reconsider our diet for physical health and to understand how our spiritual health affects us as well. Thinking about this caused me to consider the new year, and I wanted to extend a challenge to you readers to think about your health in 2024. As we begin this new year, are we willing to reconsider our physical and spiritual health?
It goes without saying that we’re only as physically healthy as what we take in. We all know that things like fried food fry our health. Personally, I will set a goal to eat healthier in 2024, but as they say, the proof will be in the pudding (pun intended). While we know that we can impact our physical health with our food and exercise choices, there are also things we have no control of in our physical health. We could be facing issues that come with genetics, age, or other factors. While we can’t control everything, hopefully, we will take time as this year starts to reconsider our goals and choices that influence our physical health.
We do have significant control of our spiritual health, though. We can use this start of 2024 to evaluate our spiritual health as well. Spiritual health also has a lot to do with what we take in.
What have you been taking in lately? Maybe you’ve been taking in a lot of sports, enjoying bowl games, basketball, hockey, or golf. Maybe you’ve been taking in a lot of holiday movies or television. Maybe you’ve been glued to the news taking in recent events. Maybe you’ve been doing a lot of reading. For me, I was given a list of 100 books that everyone should read in a lifetime. Will I get all 100 done in 2024? Hardly, but I do want to check some of those books off my list. Just like with our physical health, what we take in mentally, emotionally, and spiritually can be good or bad for us. Our reading and other intake has to go beyond entertainment, biographies, or news.
In the quest for physical health, we often hear about superfoods that are supposed to have the greatest benefits to our health. God’s Word is like the ultimate superfood for our souls, but unlike the superfoods we see in the news, it’s not a passing fad. We live in a broken and messy world, and God’s Word gives us perspective if we read it, understand it, and do what it tells us. It tells us how to react to pain, brokenness, fear, and even joy. We will never understand all the events around us, but with God’s help, His Word will help us know how we should react to those things going on around us.
So, just as I challenged you to reconsider your goals and choices that influence your physical health, I challenge you to also reconsider your goals and choices that influence your spiritual health. What goal will you set for your intake of God’s Word in 2024? You can start this year off with a reading plan. A quick search on the Internet will produce hundreds of different Bible reading plans that will allow you to consistently be in Scripture. As you read God’s Word this year, allow it to help you understand Who He is and what His plan is for you.
I want to encourage you to make it a point to commit yourself to reaching these health goals that you set in 2024. Don’t be discouraged if you have setbacks, but keep pursuing health this year.