By Dr. Froswa’ Booker-Drew
As we enter a New Year, it’s important to make sure you have the right priorities. Many people make New Year’s Resolutions to lose weight, exercise more, or eat better.
Just as we are committing to our physical health, we must commit to our spiritual health. Going to church for 2-3 hours a Sunday is not enough to keep us sane when the storms of life come.
Just as your car needs fuel to run, and your body needs food to function, how are you feeding your spirit?
Be careful with the spiritual food that you are choosing. Too many of us are filling up on snacks that are making us sick both physically and spiritually.
You need nutrients to be healthy. Otherwise, you will fill up on things that are not good for you and cause more harm than good.
Are you spiritually well? As a faith community, we are in trouble. In August 2023, “In an interview with NPR, Evangelical Christian leader Russell Moore said that multiple pastors had told him disturbing stories about their congregants being upset when they read from the “Sermon on the Mount” in which Jesus espoused the principles of forgiveness and mercy that are central to Christian doctrine.
If you want to be successful in 2024, examine your priorities starting with your spiritual walk and who has access to speak into your life.
“Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount-[and] to have someone come up after to say, ‘Where did you get those liber- al talking points?”
Moore added: “And what was alarming to me is that most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, “I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would be ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak. And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as sub-versive to us, then we’re in a crisis.”
It’s a problem when our belief is rooted and centered in the teachings of Christ and yet, too many no longer base their lives on what they believe especially when it’s uncomfortable and doesn’t fit what feels good.
YouTube along with other social media sites are not only platforms for the secular but also the proliferation of so- called self-appointed teachers, preachers, and prophets shouting views that are often more focused on attacking others than teaching God’s word.
If we are not careful, we have so many voices dictating our faith instead of us knowing intimately what we say we believe.
We are living in a time that the faith has become so political, used to attack and malign those we are called to help.
If scripture does not validate what we value, we will dismiss it and reinterpret what God says. 2 Timothy 2:15-18 (MSG) states, “Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people.
Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk.
Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul…” The passage continues to elaborate on the actions of two individuals who threw people off with lies.
There are too many people using their spaces of influence to feed the flock junk and inaccurate information.
There will be a lot of turbulence as we’ve already seen in the first few days of this year. Your stability rests in your relationship with God. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105) If you want to go in the right direction, you need God’s word to show you the way.
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)
If you want to be successful in 2024, examine your priori- ties starting with your spiritual walk and who has access to speak into your life.
Dr. Froswa’ Booker-Drew is the President of Soulstice Consultancy, LLC and the Founder of the Reconciliation and Restoration (r2fdn.org) Foundation. The author of 4 books including Empowering Charity: A New Narrative of Philanthropy, Dr. Booker-Drew is also the host of the Tapestry Podcast.
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