Friday Fight 92 - Physically Detained = Spiritually Contained

Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help me fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF92.

How many of us wake up and quickly become drained thinking about our long to-do lists or the busyness of the approaching days? We struggle to deal with our overflowing plates, and the anxiety begins to physically affect us. We do things we shouldn't to cope and compensate for the hecticness. We may feel like our bodies are falling apart or feel some physical discontent in a particular area. Can this discontent in our physical lives impact our spiritual lives?

Physically Detained = Spiritually Contained

You may be reading this and a few realizations have popped into your head. Do we want to sleep better or reduce our stress? Should we exercise more? How does what captures our physical lives have anything to do with our spiritual lives? By saying "physically captured," I am referring to anything that holds us captive physically or mentally.

Unfortunately, the abuse of our flesh and the things we do to ease our pain leave us empty. Maybe some of us are more aware of a victim's response than others, but our brains are being tormented by darkness, and often things we do to cope will contaminate us. In our attempt to trauma block something from the past or cope with something from the present, we endure emotional eating, nightmares, sleep deprivation, drinking, drugs, shopping, or anything else we use to lighten our emotional baggage. Maybe we believe our flesh is too far gone and our spiritual lives are a wreck. Perhaps the lens placed over the perspective of our mental health makes us feel we are not salvageable.

However, if we stop and remember that sin is sin, then what is not salvageable? What can God not restore?.. Absolutely nothing! God is greater than whatever part of us that we believe is unsalvageable.

Take this old barn picture as an example. Dilapidated and falling apart by being left to the elements. We, too, will succumb to death in our spirit if we do not take better care of ourselves physically. As hard as this may be to some (including myself), we cannot ignore our physical wellness while trying to nurture our spiritual health.

Darkness works to feed the flesh as many contaminants as possible. Satan will lie and tell us we deserve things that harm us and need things that will eventually addict us. He does this while lying to us about who we are to God. Satan repeatedly promotes unforgiveness, bitterness, and isolation until we ultimately experience a slow and painful spiritual death. Satan does everything he can to hijack our thoughts, and when we listen, we torment ourselves.

We all need to balance our hectic lives and be aware of the physical toll it takes on our bodies. We want and need to experience joy from the emptiness created from past hurts or current chaos. We find everything we need to calm the storms and experience joy in Christ. Let's take a moment to encourage one another; we are at our best when there is a balance in our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives. Let’s try to be our best for God.

Pastor Shannon

New Life Calvert