Are you spiritually healthy or sick? This book’s 10 probing questions will help you look beyond your spiritual activity to assess the true state of your spiritual health and help you on your journey of spiritual transformation. See how the spiritual disciplines including prayer, worship, and meditation can take your spiritual health from fair to excellent. Discover how to transform these often-automatic enterprises into faith-building activities. Learn how to spend more energy enjoying God and developing a Christlike nature. Be challenged to follow Christ as a lifetime commitment rather than seek “spiritual” shortcuts to intimacy with God.
Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health by Donald Whitney
ISBN-10: 1576830969 / ISBN-13: 978-1576830963
Question 1: Do You Thirst For God?
God births within us that spiritual thirst for Him so that He can satisfy it with Himself (Psalm 36:7-9; 107:9). The one who thirsts for God has the Holy Spirit at work within him. The one who thirsts for God is blessed by God (Isaiah 30:18; Matthew 5:6).
Practical Steps:
- Meditate on Scripture – Spend ample time not only reading the Bible, but reflecting on the Bible. We don’t just want ‘information.’ We want to absorb and apply God’s character and God’s truths.
- Pray through Scripture – Make the Scripture yours. Those in Christ are the children of God and can joyfully claim God’s promises for themselves. The Psalms are a good place to start, and return. The worship songs of God’s temple connect with our minds and hearts.
- Read thirst-making authors – Some authors are great teachers in displaying an unquenchable thirst for God. We must be humble enough to learn from others. For example: Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, A. W. Tozer, John Piper, etc.
Question 8: Do You Still Grieve Over Sin? (& also experience great joy?)
Essential aspects of true salvation are the recognition that we are sinners, grief over our sin, and repentance and belief in Christ as a result. We are much more likely to focus on “religious” entertainment, feel-good worship, and pithy jokes. We are much less likely to focus on conviction of sin, heart-wrenching worship, and tears. Jesus calls us to mourn over sin (Matthew 5:4; cf. James 4:9, 10). We must be life-long repenters.
Practical Steps:
- Make sure you understand the Gospel of the Jesus Christ. Write it out in a paragraph or page. Specifically, why did Jesus have to die, and what is repentance?
- Ask God to show you the reality of your sin. How do I sin? When do I sin? Where do I sin? Why do I sin? Against whom do I sin?
- Pray through Psalm 51, making it your own.
- Meditate on the fact that it was your sin that nailed Jesus Christ, the holy, sinless One from Heaven to the Cross. Consider how others are now in Hell for the same sins you’ve committed. Remember the high standard of the First and Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40).
Question 2: Are You Governed Increasingly By God’s Word?
Since the Word of God is sufficient to govern all of life, Christians constantly must be looking to the Word for instruction and wisdom on how to act and respond in everyday life. We must ask, “What does the Bible say?” Even on topics such as education, possessions, politics, time-management, and retirement, the Bible has something to say about our choices and what is God-honoring. A Christian that is spiritually healthy is one that sees a progression of conformity in his life over time.
Practical Steps:
- Be disciplined in our intake of God’s Word – The first step in growing in this area is to read and hear God’s Word regularly (1 Peter 2:2).
- Be attentive in reading, hearing & applying – Through prayer, Christian meditation, and intentional application, a Christian has the tools to change in conformity to the Word. Employ simple obedience in your daily life
- List several topics on which you have wondered what the Bible has to say – Or think of new ones based on your current life circumstances. Then take the time to research the Bible on those topics, using helps such as books or spiritual leaders. Then ask God if you must change based on what you find? (Examples: Investing, Saving, Divorce, Childlessness)
