Love Those Physical Checkups

Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear

the Lord, and depart from evil.

It shall be health to thy body,

and marrow to thy bones.

Proverbs 3:7,8

Doctors were people I rarely had contact with even up until I went for “that” checkup when I was about to get married. All of those beginning years, I saw a doctor mostly if I had a sore throat and needed an injection to take care of the problem. When four years old, I had to have ten straight days of injections because of a dog bite I had sustained while on a trip to Wisconsin with my mother, grandmother and baby sister.

Then my 30's hit and all of a sudden, all sorts of things occurred with my health that required doctor's visits but they weren't all that often. As I got older, the visits became more frequent. I guess aging, wear and tear on the body requires such even though I try to take good care of myself.

There have been some things that seem to occur at every doctor's visit. I'm talking about our primary care doctor when we just go for general check ups. Among the things that the doctor or his nurse checks up front are: heart, lungs (respiration), tapping the knee, throat (“say ahhhhh”), blood pressure, temperature, pulse and there might be more depending on the doctor.

With my most recent check up, I got to comparing the physical check up to a spiritual one using some of those same procedures. We have heard over and over that our Lord Jesus is THE Great Physician. I wonder what kind of final report we would get from our Great Physician if He could run a regular check up on us that would be spiritual in nature. Let's compare some of the parts of our physical body that could be viewed from a spiritual stand point. How would we measure up...how healthy would we be spiritually from every part of us or would there be parts of us found to be lacking or unhealthy. I won't include everything a doctor checks nor will I put things in the same order as a doctor would. Let's do a bit of a checkup on our spiritual selves.

Lungs:

“Take a deep breath” is what we hear as a doctor moves his stethoscope back and front along the rib cage. He is watching for normal breathing but also for any infection that might detect. Without oxygen, the other parts of our body wouldn't be worth much. Even the heart requires healthy oxygen intake. In Genesis 2:7, we find that God breathed the breath of life into man. That was the beginning of physical breath so necessary for life. However, by God's Holy Spirit, He still wants to breathe the things of the Spirit into us, perhaps not into our physical lungs but into our spiritual being. He does this at the point of our salvation and we have the opportunity to live our lives with the Holy Spirit's breath bringing spiritual life beyond our comprehension into our beings. He loves more than we can know when we breathe every prayer to Him with great frequency. What is my prayer life like? Is it lacking or is it vital to my being. Beyond our salvation experience, the Holy Spirit should be our very breath spiritually speaking.

Heart:

The pumping of our physical heart keeps us alive. It keeps blood racing through every vessel in our bodies. I read one day that you and I should be so full of the Word of God that if we were to sustain a serious cut, we would bleed Bible. We know that couldn't happen physically but it's an interesting thought. The heart is the center of our physical being but is the very core of who we are spiritually speaking. In our culture, we think of the heart in a romantic way as well as a place from which our sensitive, loving feelings originate...those feelings we have for God and others. We may have to occasionally have blood tests that help detect if there is either too much or too little of something in our blood. The Word of God is that filter spiritually speaking that also keeps us strong and healthy spiritually. The biggest question in this particular area though is: Does my spiritual heart beat for the things of God? Remember that our spiritual heart is the core of who we are.

Temperature:

If the doctor doesn't do it, the nurse does...taking a temperature. It used to take what seemed an hour to hold that thermometer in my mouth. Now they have quickie little instruments for that. If our Lord Jesus were to take our spiritual temperature, what would He find. We know how He feels about spiritual temperatures. Revelation 3:15,16 tells us how God felt about the spiritual temperature of the church at Laodicea:

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

God's disappointment in that church was evident. What is our temperature for the things of God? Are we hot, cold or pretty indifferent? A lot of our spiritual temperature is encouraged as we meet with the people of God at our own church. With Christian friends, we should be encouraged to be more for Jesus than we've ever been.

Knee-jerk:

Those little hammers all look the same. We sit with legs dangling over the edge of the examining table and the doctor does a tap on the front of the knee to see what kind of knee jerk he gets, thus checking our reflexes. He is looking for an immediate response. He knows if we cheat, or if the knee jerk is a natural reaction to a tap on the knee. You and I live in a society that deals with a lot with gray areas. I remember when in grade school that right and wrong were NEVER debated. We all knew right from wrong and also knew which one we had better choose. Whether at school, church, or with friends or any other place we happened to be, there was never a debate about the right thing to do. God is looking for an instant response when it comes to proper behavior or standards in our lives. We should have an immediate reaction regarding the right thing to do, like the knee jerk when tapped on the knee by a small hammer-like instrument. In today's society, I'm afraid there are many children and adults as well when confronted with a decision find themselves debating as to right and wrong. Our instant response should be that of doing what is right. It is the only acceptable response as far as God is concerned.

If we are going to be healthy Christians it will be much like being healthy physically. We all want a strong heart, healthy lungs, strong bodies, blood and oxygen that keeps us going. The same can be said for our spiritual being that comes only through a strong relationship with our Lord Jesus.

Dear Father, help me to be strong spiritually in every way knowing that I can't do it on my own. I want to be a healthy Christian that brings you glory in my words or behaviors. I thank You for Your love and direction in my life. I love you. Amen.