May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless
A few years ago, this quote made the rounds on social media, and it's one of my favourites:
Maturing is realising that when you’re angry at everyone, you need to eat.When everyone is angry at you, you need to sleep. – unknown
And it’s so true!
I think Elijah could have benefited from this realisation when he found himself feeling hopeless and defeated after fleeing for his life from Jezebel in 1 Kings 19 (1 Kings 19:2-4).
The story goes on to describe how Elijah isolates himself, even from his personal servant, and then falls asleep (he was clearly exhausted) until an angel wakes him and gives him something to eat (it seems he was hungry, too)!
I love how God first satisfies Elijah’s physical needs in a very practical way (providing sleep and food) before giving him his next spiritual assignment. God tends to Elijah’s human limitations, showing that the physical body is an essential part of our spiritual lives.
The same is true for us. Sometimes, as Christians, it’s easy to spiritualize things and mark everything as a “spiritual battle.” But often the answer is much simpler. God made us spirit, soul and BODY (1 Thessalonians 5:23), we need to take care of all three.
A good way to do this is to HALT.
HALT is a simple self-check tool. It stands for:
- H — Hungry
- A — Angry
- L — Lonely
- T — Tired
The idea is that when you’re overwhelmed, reactive, emotionally low, or tempted toward unhealthy coping behaviours, one of those four states is often contributing.
Instead of immediately trusting every thought or emotion, you pause and ask:
- Am I hungry?
- Am I angry?
- Am I lonely?
- Am I tired?
Note that Elijah was all four! But once God had taken care of his physical needs, he was able to travel for forty days and forty nights as God had commanded him (1 Kings 19:8).
I hope you give HALT a try the next time you feel down and let me know how it goes.
