Being spiritual

Bible, Bible study (Christian), Christ, Christian, Christianity, God, Holy Spirit, I had serious problems, Jesus, Old Testament, Prayer, read the Bible, reading the Bible, the entire Bible,

It’s not easy to talk about something so personal.

I remember the first time I heard about being spiritual, I immediately became interested; it seemed like something from another planet, unreachable for me at the time. Since then, the first thing I did was to start reading the Bible.

I thought that the more I read the Bible, the more spiritual I would become. When I reached my teens I had already read the entire Bible. My Bible was all highlighted with passages that spoke to me, my Bible was so colourful, LOL. At the time, I did not turn spiritual for doing that.

I also sought to pray whenever I remembered to do so. I was very afraid of going to hell so I was always asking God to forgive my sins, even though deep down I was not aware of what they actually were.

Friends, none of this is being spiritual. I became spiritual much later on…

• When reading the Bible was no longer a mandatory habit and became a pleasant time of meditation
• When I started talking to God because I wanted to be close to Him and not because I wanted something from Him
• When I started going to church with a strong desire to hear His voice instead of simply going because my parents went
• When I started sharing all that God had given to me with others
• When I understood that I depended on God for everything and that without Him nothing I could ever do would be successful
• When I learned to trust Him and not depend on my own strength
• When I stopped justifying myself and waited for His justice to do it for me
• When I got rid of my insecurities and negative emotions and began to live by faith
• When I finally stopped seeing the world shine
• When I went against my will to do God’s will
• When I learnt to sacrifice

All of this is still true today; I can’t stop practicing each item on this list for one day. If I do, my spiritual life is affected directly and I become weak. This has happened a few times and, as a consequence, I had serious problems. This is why I invest in my spiritual life every day and yet it is not easy — imagine those who don’t invest at all?!

In faith.

Mrs. Cristiane Cardoso
cristianecardoso.com/en