In 2015, I hosted a podcast called Health Matters where I interviewed leading health experts. Rusty Nokes has been a Certified Fitness Trainer since 1998 and has competed in everything from bodybuilding to endurance racing. While struggling with divorce, addiction and homelessness, God inspired him to write the 31-Day Journal, Christ Fit Fusion-The Fusion of Spiritual and Physical Fitness.
What do you mean spiritual nutrition?
“If I told you, as your coach, I want you to get up tomorrow morning and eat a great breakfast, but don’t worry about eating until next Friday morning. are you in I won’t be your coach for long.
“A lot of Christians, a lot of religious people in general, have one spiritual meal a week and that’s usually a Sunday morning service or a Saturday night service. We know that the natural grazing principle is the best – smaller meals throughout the day. So spiritual nourishment, exactly the same thing. A well-balanced, healthy spiritual diet throughout the day.
“I’m not talking about burying your nose in the Bible every 20 minutes — that’s the main course — and I absolutely think you should be in your Word every day. But there are other little things we can do to get that spiritual nourishment.
“While I’m driving, I have the option of turning on my radio and listening to my country tunes, or I can hand it over to one of my favorite pastors on one of the local Christian channels. Or I have an app on my phone and I can plug in any pastor I want and hear a few words while I’m driving. I have little note cards that I post on my computer. I look at it all day.
“So these little nuggets, these little snacks, we can keep going every day. We don’t sit down and partake in a 5 course meal all the time. Eat that good meal and every few hours, something. And it’s easier than you think. It just takes commitment.
“Just like physical training and physical nutrition, it just takes a little discipline. Almost everyone takes a lunch break. So if you’re going to lunch, you have a few minutes in the car to listen to something, you don’t even have to follow a story to refer to Proverbs and just land on a random proverb and read a proverb or two. Grab your little snack. This is what I mean by spiritual nourishment. There are other books by pastors, all these things we take in to feed our spirit. This is what I’m talking about when I talk about spiritual nourishment.
What do you mean mental exercise?
“Well, mental exercise goes hand in hand with physical exercise. To do. It is to do something. So by reading the Bible, I get my nourishment, but it is also a physical act. I could hit the snooze button, I could get up and make coffee and watch the morning news, but I’ll choose to do something that requires me to work those mental muscles that make those conscious choices.
“You’ve read your Bible, you’ve got your prayer, you’ve got your fasting, you’ve got these spiritual disciplines, but you’ve also got some things that sometimes you don’t think about.
“You know it takes a lot of strength spiritually to choose to forgive someone. I’m one of those people who tends to get bitter, hold a grudge, sulk and sulk and just not forgive someone.
“But when I choose to say, ‘Okay, I know God wants me to forgive this person.’ They have hurt my feelings, but instead of saying something or taking a dig at them, I will choose to forgive them.
“I will choose to ask for forgiveness when I know I have said something small or something, whether to my husband or one of my children.
“You know language gets you into a lot of trouble, it will be for me. And so for me forgiving or choosing to forgive is like bench pressing 300 pounds. I have become very strong mentally because I have to push this weight. I know what I have to do.
“So sometimes these spiritual exercises – walking away from an argument, not responding – take a lot of strength for some people. Being patient. Doing an act of service for someone.
“Every time the Spirit puts it on our hearts to do a spiritual action or refrain from doing something we know we shouldn’t, it calls for those spiritual muscles to come into play.
“This is spiritual exercise along with your usual disciplines of reading, prayer and fasting.
“So for me — again there’s no scientific formula — I like to read in my New Testament and I’ll start a book and systematically read a chapter or two a day. And then I’ll go to the Old Testament and read a chapter or two in whatever book I’m in there. And I like to go a little bit into Proverbs and a little bit into Psalms and have that balance. You know again that there is this balance, physically and spiritually. But whatever you do, every day.”
Since speaking with Rusty, I have paid attention to my spiritual diet and exercise similar to the way I focus on my physical diet and exercise.
Although the podcast is no longer available, if you would like a copy of any of the full transcript of the interview, please email me.
This was an excerpt from the Health Matters Podcast, believing that prayer and Bible study are to the spirit what exercise and healthy eating are to the body.
Blessings on your journey to health.
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