Are You Spiritually Fit?

"We're not here to stand around and look pretty!"  my personal trainer barked.

Those were the first words out of his mouth. 

"Good!"  I replied.  'I think'....I thought to myself, squirming a little inside.  I sized up the mountain of muscle standing before me.  You could bounce a pretty penny off his cut figure and it would rebound right back to you.  This retired Air Force trainer could run laps around me and lift me up with his pinky finger.  I pondered my own petite frame in comparison, and wondered how on earth this man could make something out of me.  He didn't have much muscle power to work with, after all.

"The purpose of this training is to make you ready to handle anything at any time," he continued.

I liked the sound of that...'but how on earth am I going to get from Point A to Point B?' I wondered.

It dawned on me that I had just entered my own personal boot camp.

Practice Like You Play

We often dream of being physically chiseled, but who really wants to do what it takes to get there?  And yet, we can't bypass the growth process.  We can't just skip from Point A to Point B.  Our strengthening, our growth, occurs between Point A and Point B, and, in fact, makes us ready for Point B when we get there.

We "get" that in the natural.  If we want to look and feel good, then we eat well and exercise.  Voila!  

But how often do we work on getting ripped on the outside, while we let our spiritual selves dwindle like emaciated skeletons within? 

When it comes to spiritual things, we chow down on McDonald's (genetically altered religion or worldly pursuits) every day and don't get off our spiritual duffs to do what the Word says.  Yet, we still expect to be Olympic champions!  We still expect to overcome life's challenges and take over the Promised Land.  Then we get sincerely disappointed when things don't work out.  'What happened, God?  Where were you?' we ask, sincerely.  Yet, the scripture says: "THOSE WHO KNOW THEIR GOD will be strong and do mighty exploits (bold and daring feats)!" ~Daniel 11:32.  

If you're not seeing victories in your life, maybe you just need to know your God more.  Here's how.

Eat Well and Exercise

If I were a spiritual physician and you came to me with a bunch of your problems, I would ask you two questions:

1)  Are you eating well?

2)  Are you exercising? 

It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. ~ Luke 4:4.

First, I would ask: are you daily renewing your mind through scripture on how much God loves you?  Are you recounting how Jesus Christ died, took the keys of Hell, was risen from the dead, raised you from the dead, and seated you with Him in heavenly places, over all the works of the enemy?   (Ephesians).  Are you remembering the many mighty works God has done on your behalf?  Like given you life, breath, a family, food, clothing, not to mention countless personal answers to prayer throughout your life.  

Do you hang around life-giving people, who feed your joy rather than rob your joy?  Are you hanging with people who bring you down or lift you up?  Are you feasting on worry?  Are you feeding on the good news or bad news? 

Second, I would ask: are you exercising what you know?  Sometimes we become spiritual couch potatoes....consuming lots of scripture, but never doing what the Word says.  We become fat and feeble, unable to lift a spiritual finger when we meet the least bit of resistance.  We can quote the whole New Testament, but we don't do what it says, and, therefore, we don't see good results.  (Luke 6:46).

James 1:22-25 says: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was.  But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

There are a lot of Church people standing around looking pretty, but who couldn't lift a finger spiritually if they met the least bit of resistance in life.  Going to church in and of itself makes you no more spiritually fit than going to the gym, standing there, and admiring the weights from afar off will make you physically fit.  It's only when we pick those weights up, when we exercise what we learn, that we start seeing results.  Get to know your God and do like He does, and you'll get His results every time!

"Be Combat Ready"

Notice how I didn't say: "read a chapter a day" or follow a bunch of arbitrary, self-imposed rules.  No, this is not about you.  This is about renewing your mind to who God is and what He did.  We are called to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10), not strong in ourselves.  Let the weak say, "I AM strong!" (Joel 3:10).

Like Joshua and Caleb in the Old Testamanent, you too will say to the obstacle before you right now, "We are well able to overcome it!"  And you, too, will possess the Promised Land.  Why could they say that?  The other Israelites were quaking in their boots at the thought of facing the giants inhabiting the Promised Land, and so they didn't enter in.  But Joshua and Caleb knew their God, they had a revelation that "greater is He who is in me than He who is in this world" (1 John 4:4).  And so they conquered.  They did mighty exploits.  And so will you.

Get in the Game!

Get off the bench and get in the game!  If you want to win in this life over financial lack, broken relationships, depression, fear, anxiety, death, and whatever else ails you, then practice like you play.  Do it every day: remind yourself that God made you victorious in Christ.  Remind yourself that God cannot be defeated.  Remind yourself that God never fails.   Remind yourself that if God be for you, who can be against you? (Romans 8:31).     

As we grow up in Him, we'll be combat ready: able to handle anything at any time.  When we remember Him, we win. (Proverbs 3:5-6).  Grow strong in Him today and watch your miracles unfold.