Our Pastor put a copy of a book through our door the other day. I say 'put' as he must've been in a bit of a rush and gave it a shove as the book clattered through the door knocking one of my childminding children's wellies over in the process! We all jumped! 

It's called 'Spiritual Healthcheck' by Carl Laferton and is published by The Good Book Company. What is our Pastor trying to tell us I thought?! But, when questioned, he said he had a few copies lying around and thought we'd like one. We were recently talking about spiritual growth with him and how we could support our Home Group.

So, I've decided to work through the book. It's short and very easy to read. It's made up of 16 steps to a 'thriving Christian life' so I'm attempting to complete one per day. I am failing at that - but am at least getting one done every couple of days! Each step contains some short passages of the Bible to read, some questions and thoughts, a summary of what that means to the author, and what that should therefore mean to us - all in the context of improving our own spiritual health. I jot down the passages in my journal and answer the questions there too. That works for me - it gives me a place to then come back to and reflect. Er, and remember what I'm supposed to be doing! 

Today's step was on Commitment - commitment to follow Jesus' command to love others. Through reading John 15 v 9 - 11 and then 14 - 15, it's pretty clear that we will remain in Jesus' love if we keep his commands and that this will make our joy complete. In doing this, Jesus will call us His friend. We need to love others as Jesus has loved us. I then went on to read Romans 12 v 9 - 16 and this is where I came across a struggle.

I learned that I am not growing spiritually unless I 'sincerely, sacrificially, actively love God's people.' And do you know what? I find this hard. There are plenty of people - even very close to me - that I don't love in this way - in much of a way at all in fact. 

But I'm reminded to look to the cross, and not to those people. If I focus on the cross - on what Jesus did there for me when I did nothing to deserve it, I will see His love for me. And it's that love for me which will be given to me to love other people. It now sounds possible.

Let me share a practical example which happened earlier today which prompted me to write this. Husband and I popped to M&S to get lunch bits and, when we got home, we found that a gift had been left for us. We opened it up to find a bottle of our very favourite spiced rum and a card from two church friends (one who is a member of our Home Group). A few weeks back, in our Home Group, we'd been sharing with each other how our week had been and anything we'd value prayer for. The friend in question said she was struggling to home school her two children and work at the same time (understandably!) but especially as they were all expected to access a device of some sort and there weren't enough to go round. Later on that evening, I sent a message asking if she'd like to borrow my iPad. I dropped it round the next day. Our gift today was to say thanks for 'saving the day'. 

Okay, so it was a bit of an inconvenience to me (but only a bit) as I had to postpone reading my novel on the Kindle app, couldn't access my calendar (and almost forgot to pick my son up from his dad's!), and couldn't use it for work myself (but I still had my laptop). But this little inconvenience to me showed love for someone else. It's fairly easy to show love to people you genuinely like and care about. But by God giving you those opportunities, I think He's telling us that it's okay to start somewhere. If we can get in the habit of showing love in every opportunity we are given, it will become a habit. Surely, the next step is to go that bit further. 

I think I am growing spiritually in showing love for God's people. I really try to take those opportunities that God gives me, and I'm showing love to two other people at the moment that are complete strangers to me (more about that next time). I am now clear what I need to work on and I thank God for giving me the chance to see that for myself.