Spiritual Check Up

I hate going to the doctors. I’ve been coughing for the past few weeks and finally decided to go get checked out. But I hate making that call. I’m always nervous they’re going to tell me I’m imagining things and to stop wasting their time. That has never happened, of course, but I still would rather suffer until someone forces me to go. Then I know I’m truly sick. But how often could I have avoided unnecessary pain and illness by going earlier?

Going to the doctors wasn’t as bad as I thought. They checked me out and told me what I needed to do, and all’s well. My mind is at ease. I can get on with life.

Being ill these past few days, and my unwillingness to call the doctors made me think of Luke 5:30 – 32.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
(NIV)

While the Pharisees and other ‘righteous’ people continued to view themselves as healthy, they would not need Jesus. The ‘sinners’ who were so aware of their own sin, appreciated Jesus more and came to him more readily to  be healed of that sin.

While I am reluctant to see my doctor, my fiancé is the opposite. Because he has poor health, he has a great relationship with his GP and will happily go to them with even the slightest change in his health. I, on the other hand, take my health for granted and rarely admit to being ill.

We can be the same in our spiritual lives, as Jesus’ words show. Those who are new in their relationships with him seem to be very aware of when they mess up and go immediately to him. Those of us who have been 'healthy' and in a relationship with him for longer can be very different.

Even though we are saved, we are can often carry around sin for a long time until we can’t ignore its presence any more and come to God for forgiveness. We pretend everything is fine, yet we know deep down we should go for a spiritual check up to sort it out. The sin can then seep into every part of our life, poisoning our efforts, and we feel like we’re not communicating with God as we used to. We can fear his wrath and anger, and that stops us from making that call to him.

But just like a quick visit to our doctor, placing our sin before God and asking for forgiveness is never as bad as we think it will be, and we feel so much better afterwards.

I encourage you to spend time with God this weekend having a quick ‘spiritual check up’. What spiritual battles are you ignoring within yourself? What does God want to say to you, but you won’t give him the time to?

(Don’t forget to check out my fundraising page for EMASS – I'm walking 34 miles in 2 days!)