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Date: Jun 15, 2006 Previous | Next
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? #14
WHAT SPIRITUAL HEALTH IS ALL ABOUT 
Today we continue our study in First Peter. While Peter does not specifically address the issue of physical health, he has taught us a lot about our spiritual health. Over and over we have heard the plea from his pen to live authentic lives in Christ. “If you claim the name of Christ,” Peter urges, “then leave your nametag on.”
In his parting challenge Peter offers an apt prescription for spiritual health. Consider the three parts of Peter’s prescription, beginning with this one: “Cast all your cares on God.”
Chapter 5, verse 7 tells us, “7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” To the degree that we follow Peter’s prescription, we are healthier and happier. An enlarging body of research focuses on this relationship between religion and mental health. The January 17, 2005, issue of Time magazine reports:
Religious people are less depressed, less anxious and less suicidal than nonreligious people. And they are better able to cope with such crises as illness, divorce and bereavement. “Even if you compare two people who have symptoms of depression,” says Michael McCullough, an associate professor of psychology and religious studies at the University of Miami, “the more religious person will be a little less sad.”
Chances are, he'll also be a little happier. Studies show that the more a believer incorporates religion into daily living--attending services, reading Scripture, praying--the better off he or she appears to be on two measures of happiness: frequency of positive emotions and overall sense of satisfaction with life.
Science is confirming what Peter wrote long ago. The apostle prescribes the optimum life in God. How can you enter into this life? First, you must cast all your cares upon God. Secondly, be self-controlled and alert.
The next verse reads, “8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
“The devil,” Peter says, “prowls like a lion.” How do we survive? “Be self-controlled and alert.” Saint Francis warned, “Be alert, therefore, for the devil, who, if he can claim even one hair of your head, will lose no time in making a braid of it.”
“Be careful,” Peter warns, “for the devil is devious and he will destroy you.”
Be careful. Dropping your spiritual guard will spell your demise.
In 2004, the Boston Public Library opened an exhibit to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the “Great Molasses Flood.” This tragedy killed 21 people and injured 150. On January 15, 1919, an enormous steel vat, containing 2.3 million gallons of molten molasses, burst. Tidal waves of syrup--thirty feet tall--destroyed buildings, crushed freight cars, automobiles, and drowned people. Some referred to it as the "Dark Tide."
What caused it? The holding tank, 50 feet high and 240 feet around, had constant leaks. To address the problem, they repainted the tank to match the color of the leaking molasses! It was only a matter of time until disaster struck.
I’m wondering: Are there any hazardous situations you’re painting over in your life? Maybe it’s visiting Internet sites that imperil your soul. Perhaps you’re taking ethical shortcuts in the workplace. It could be that you’re investing a lot of time in a relationship that you know does not honor God. Whatever it is, stop! Be alert.
Nobody takes that first sip of booze hoping to murder an innocent victim while driving under the influence; and yet every DUI fatality begins with one sip from someone who thinks, It could never happen to me. I can handle my liquor. No woman flirts with her boss thinking that it will destroy her family; and yet that’s how affairs often begin. Nobody cheats on their income tax thinking they’ll land in jail; and yet that’s where it starts. The destruction of one’s soul begins with small compromises in the mind of someone who thinks, I can handle the devil’s temptations. Oh no you can’t! You must flee temptation and don’t leave a forwarding address. The devil is too cunning; you cannot match spiritual wits with Satan.
Peter then gives one more prescription. In the next verse he says, “9Resist [the devil], standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
Frankly I find this to be a refreshing, in-your-face challenge to take responsibility in a world where it seems no one really wants to be responsible for their actions. Just look at the proliferation of lawsuits in our country. We’re so quick to blame others and then we expect to be compensated for it.
You probably know about some of the crazy suits that clog up our courts. For example, Judith Haimes, a psychic from Philadelphia, was awarded $986,000 when she claimed that a doctor’s CT scan impaired her psychic abilities. Now if she was psychic, shouldn’t she have known not to go to that doctor? It’s a crazy world where we so often want to shirk responsibility and blame others for our problems.
Peter doesn’t play that game. Instead, he calls us to take responsibility for our own spiritual health and resist the devil. The key question is “How?” How do we resist the devil? A clear answer comes from the book of James: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The only way to resist the devil is to submit yourself to God.
An old priest was asked by a young man, “Father, when will I cease to be bothered by the temptations of the flesh?”
The priest replied, “I wouldn’t trust myself, Son, until I was dead for three days.”
Here’s the bottom line: You can’t trust yourself to triumph over temptation. The devil is too strong. The only way to resist the devil, according to James, is to submit yourself to God.
We learn this lesson from the cuckoo bird. What’s interesting about this bird is that it never builds its own nest. When momma bird feels an egg coming on, she finds an unguarded nest with eggs. The cuckoo lands, hurriedly lays its egg, and takes off again. That's all the cuckoo does in terms of parenting.
Let’s say it’s a thrush whose nest has been invaded. Being mathematically challenged, momma thrush fails to notice the extra egg. Four little thrushes and one large cuckoo eventually hatch. But the cuckoo is two or three times the size of the thrushes.
Mrs. Thrush, having hatched the five little birds, goes off early in the morning to get the worm. She comes back, circles the nest to see four petite thrush mouths and one cavernous cuckoo mouth. Who gets the worm? The cuckoo.
So the cuckoo gets bigger and bigger and the thrushes get smaller and smaller. To find a baby cuckoo in a nest, simply look for little dead thrushes. The cuckoo discards them one at a time as they die. The adult thrush keeps feeding the baby cuckoo—even though it is three times as big as the thrush.
You and I have two natures in one nest. The nature you feed will grow, and the nature you starve will diminish. That’s how you resist the devil. Submit to God. This means that you seek to feed the spiritual nature through the regular practice of the spiritual disciplines. By living in the presence of God, through prayer, Bible study, worship and so on, you feed that spiritual nature and starve the carnal nature. God then begins to live in us and His holiness pervades our lives.
Throughout this series Peter has called us to live according to the value system of the kingdom of God. There are two dominions at work on this earth—the dominion of the devil and the dominion of the Divine. You have to choose. Will you build your life on the Rock (that is, the Cornerstone of Christ) or sand?
It’s decision time. Will the words of Peter be just words, or will you take these words to heart and craft a life that is built upon the value system of God’s kingdom? Will you invest your time, your finances, your talents into the Kingdom of our Savior or the kingdom of self? You must decide—today, and every day.
Tomorrow is our final installment of this series called WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? We’ll conclude with a summary of Peter’s first letter. If you missed any one of the messages in this series on First Peter, then you’ll want to be sure and join us tomorrow as we review the letter. Until then this is Lonnie Melashenko reminding you that it’s always true, friend, God loves you.
