Easy Steps To Strengthen Your Spiritual Life
Hello Friends,
We will be exploring this week’s domain with a visionary, activist, creative, thought leader and trusted friend. Being married to him for the past ten (10) years has been quite an adventure. He is an excellent father, and life partner. Rev. Richard Griffiths has been making yah girl happy and proud y’all. Please hear his thoughts on cultivating a rich spiritual life. You will be blessed.
What is spiritual wellness?
Spiritual well-being is a process of understanding beliefs, values, ethics, that help guide your life. Whatever your preferred approach, spending time asking and exploring your spiritual life can be an important part of your well-being.
We are spiritual beings first.
From my perspective, this is the most important part of your well-being. We are spiritual beings first, created and fashioned in the eyes of the living God. There is so much that is happening in the spiritual realm that we’re often unaware of; however, what we believe and appropriate in this natural realm affect the supernatural and, how we engage the supernatural affects the natural.
How can we engage spiritual wellness?
Prayer and scriptural meditation
Rest and sabbath
Godly counsel and feedback
Prayer and scriptural meditation is key for me. Prayer is more than asking God for something, and is really about learning to listen to God and connect with Him. I believe that the Lord speaks but sometimes we can’t hear because we’re too busy talking or requesting. So, silence and contemplation are key components of my spiritual wellness practice.
Mediative contemplation isn’t just the free-flowing of any and every thought into my heart, mind and sacred space. I’m intentional in my prayer moments to allow the word of God to take residence in me. My goal is not to just be a little better than I was before, but to be who God has designed me to be. This contemplation allows me to identify and interrogate lifestyle inconsistencies.
A major function of spiritual wellness is learning how to see and honor people as God’s beloved.
We often think of spiritual well-being as an individual activity...like “me first” or “me only.” In today’s world, I think people’s priority is self-preservation over sacrificial love. A major function of spiritual wellness is learning how to see and honor people as God’s beloved and also recognize how we are being shaped by God in and through community. God can use every facet of life, work, and play to deepen our love for Him and people.
Rest and Sabbath is a scriptural mandate that has helped me and my family. Because of my professional ministerial capacity, Tuesday is my day. Pete’s Scazzero’s book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality over the years has been a great resource - it helps to remind me that I’m not Superman and God doesn’t want me to be. There are things that won’t get done by me and that’s okay. I have natural limitations and stopping each week for a day to watch God work for me while I delight in Him and the people and things that give me joy is a huge priority for me and something I recommend.
Godly counsel and feedback is necessary, particularly from people who share a similar spiritual lens to be able to constructively critique and encourage. Even feedback from people who don’t share your particular value system is helpful to ensure we’re not in a silo.