Staying Spiritually Bright

This morning, someone was speaking to me about some things God had put in her heart, and she said something that really struck me. As Christians, it’s really important for us to be spiritually awake. This means that we need to be aware of the things God wants us to accomplish. We need to set out times for fellowship with him before anything else in the day. Why? Because when we do other things first, we let our minds become filled with the cares and pleasures of this world. These things aren’t necessarily bad, but they should not be our priority. When we are focused on worldly matters, we leave ourselves open to the devil and he will use these things to numb us and make our light dull. For example, something I tend to do in the morning is to check all of my social media. Now, social media isn’t a bad thing. But when I do it before or right after prayer, my mind becomes cluttered with things that are at a lower realm than what we should operate in as Christians. Using my phone shouldn’t become something I do out of habit or sheer boredom; it should be something I use in moderation.

The Bible says, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” [Luke 21:34]. Even though our daily tasks and activities are important for our well-being, we shouldn’t stress over them. Instead, we should rely on God’s grace to help us accomplish everything that we need to do. When we focus on God, he is able to motivate us and make us more productive than we could ever be on our own.

As many of us go into the school year, let’s take time after school to pray and study God’s word, or read Christian literature, because these kinds of things keep our spirit up. School is very draining, and we are surrounded by people who think and work in the flesh, but it’s important to keep that fire burning and not allow schoolwork and other things become all we spend our time doing outside of classes. May God continue to strengthen us, and may we be mindful to fill ourselves up with spiritual things, so we can be a light to everyone around us.