Today’s Encouragement is, “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16 NLT
Renewed Every Day –
There are seasons of life when we become more aware of certain truths. When we are ill, injured, or maybe a birthday milestone passes, we become more aware of our mortality. As much as we often deny the inevitability, we are dying! We have only a short moment of eternity to live in these mortal bodies on earth.
But! Our spirits are being renewed every day!
Consider this juxtaposition of body dying and spirit renewing.
We tend to our bodies constantly. We nourish, bathe, pamper, exercise, clothe, hydrate, rest… we are always doing something to maintain this body… which is still dying!
However, our spirits, our eternal beings, we don’t give much attention… The nature of our physical body is toward decay. But our spirit is eternal; there is no decay! We can support, nourish, and exercise it; thus, our spirit can grow stronger.
We can certainly also have a weak or strong spirit. The example of exercise makes this clearer. When we exercise our body or our mind, we stress the muscles, and the stress causes strengthening. And so, with our spiritual ‘muscles,’ – we grow stronger spiritually with spiritual exercise!
While Walking, running, swimming, and weightlifting strengthen the body, prayer, Bible reading, worship, and sharing our faith strengthen our spirit.
The distinction is critically important; our bodies die, but our spirits are renewed every day.
Father, thank You for renewing our spirits every day. Help us nourish and exercise our spiritual nature so that it can be the driving force in our lives.
Fresh Outpouring
Kim Walker-Smith
Today’s Encouragement 