David McKay, A Spiritual Check-Up for a Healthy Life with Christ
Crown & Covenant, 88 pages
None of us relish the thought of even a routine appointment with our doctor or dentist but, if we are wise, we will make use of it. Given our natural concern for our physical health, why should it be any different with our spiritual health? We ought to routinely take stock of our walk with Christ, checking for signs of progress as well as areas of concern.
Dr McKay has provided a wonderfully practical little book to help us do just that. In eleven concise, devotional chapters we consider various areas of the Christian life which are vital for our spiritual health but which, invariably, need attention from time to time. These include:
- Loving the Lord
- Giving Yourself to Prayer
- Communing with the Saints
- Profiting from Trials
- Caring about the Unconverted
- Using Your Gifts
Particularly refreshing, in a volume ultimately concerned with progress in the faith, is the author’s desire to impart encouragement at every opportunity. This is not a book designed to beat up the reader or leave us feeling guilty. As Dr McKay says in his Introduction, “A check-up is not an unremittingly negative exercise that results in inevitable discouragement. Along with challenges regarding our problems, there will be encouragements regarding our progress.” The author is true to his word in this pastorally-minded book. In the chapter concerned with grieving over sin, for example, we conclude with eyes fixed on our Saviour (1 John 3:2). It is the certain hope of seeing him in glory, rather than endlessly lamenting our failings, that ought to quicken our repentance and leave us longing for Heaven.
The chapters on profiting from trials and caring about the unconverted were standouts for this reader. Chapter 10, “Using Your Gifts”, is very practical, reminding us just how ordinary or “nitty-gritty” the work of the Spirit may be in our lives.
This would be an excellent volume to include in personal devotions or for use in a small-group church Bible study. Each chapter is full of Scripture quotations which may prompt further study of quoted passages in their context.
If you are overdue for a spiritual check-up, this one comes highly recommended.
Philip Dunwoody
