Living in Asia taught me valuable lessons that I thought I already knew very well. From the most economically impoverished, physically hungry and physically thirsty people I have ever known, I witnessed and received the God-kind of genuine love and fellowship that I never had witnessed or received from my financially better-off American brothers and sisters in Christ. These poverty-stricken individuals I fellowshipped with were blessed with spiritually fat souls! That’s why they freely shared their insufficient measures of food, drink and housing with me. More important, they also freely shared their precious time and their treasured spiritual riches.

My soul benefited greatly from the lessons their generous hospitality taught me. They showed me how deeply concerned they were about their own soul’s daily need to eat spiritual food and drink spiritual water. None was too concerned about eating daily portions of homegrown or money-bought provisions, which only could keep their physical bodies from wasting away.

In truth, no amount of money could buy the gift that satisfies our thirsty and hungry souls. That gift (eternal life—a close, intimate, personal relationship with God) is so important it is priceless! That’s why Isaiah prophesies that only the Messiah (Christ Jesus) can offer God’s priceless eternal life gift for free (Isa. 55:1). Centuries later, Jesus Christ fulfills this prophecy. His death on the Cross paid in full the high price of our eternal life gift.

Lastly, my Asian brothers and sisters showed me how being diligent about our spiritual life is the price we pay for our FREE daily portions of Living Bread and Living Water—the spiritual food and water we need to fatten up (prosper) our souls. We purchase these daily portions with our sincerest pursuit of forgiveness for our sins, our faithful acceptance of the finish work Jesus Christ fulfilled on the Cross, and our devoted hunger and thirst for God’s holiness and righteousness. This diligence is how we make our souls spiritually fat. It works as long as we never let spiritual sluggishness (mere religious desires) keep us from daily renewing our minds.

Is your soul wasting away? Is your soul getting fat off of Jesus Christ’s spiritual Bread and the Holy Spirit’s spiritual Water? Shalom.

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. ~ Prov. 13:4; cf. Isa. 55:1-2

 Keep it real…Live it out…Watch it work!

~ from my manuscript – Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind