Spiritual Fitness & Living With Chronic Pain

Look around your environment. Typically and almost automatically, your conscious view perceives things by how you feel on the inside. Practically speaking, your inner feelings directly affect how you see things about you. When feeling terrible, people tend to see the darker sides of conflict about them. The chances for light to pour through the cracks are slim when feeling completely depressed and overwhelmed. As a result the vision of hopelessness tends to brush across the canvas of life, shutting out other possibilities of vitality. Good never seems good enough. And bad can seem heavier on the soul than an anvil wrapped around your neck.

If you truly profess belief in Jesus, then your vision about life can change dramatically, as your mind processes things differently. Not everything you see depends on how you feel. Your inner eyesight can reflect the goodness of God without you feeling very well at all.

Let’s think about something that changed my outlook about my outer environment though my inner world acutely expressed painful turmoil. I believe this will also help you to view the reality of the world around you from a fresh and healthy perspective.

When you live in Christ, your own life is not your own. You are an extension of Christ. I’ve got to pause on this thought for a second. Truly contemplate what I’m trying to convey.

You are an extension of Christ, like a branch grafted into the vine, who is Jesus. Hence, everything about your inner world is nourished and transformed by the regenerating love of Christ; and in a sense, making you the “same” as Him because you are united with Him. This sameness is due to His action of uniquely forming Himself within you. Connection and reformation are diligently working on the inner part of your being, so you can see the world differently – specifically from an eternal perspective.

There is a new life awaiting you. It is a life devoted to living for the kingdom of God. Regardless of what’s on the inside, the redemptive power of Christ changes you into something new – in which you will fully see the greatness of this life, despite some unattractiveness found in its outer appearances…

Keep me on your favorites.  For more about living with chronic pain and spiritual fitness visit me at www.gordonselley.com.

To your health,