I joined a gym recently. I got to a point where I just couldn’t stand being so out of shape, I remembered how I looked and felt a few years ago in my physical peak and I longed to be like that again. I have tried a couple times to be active and to change my eating habits but though my intentions were good I never stuck with those changes long enough for them to make any difference. It took me awhile to get into the sad shape I am in and it was a slow process in getting here and filled with excuses and justifications as to why it was ok. I remember looking in the mirror every once in a while and convincing myself that it wasn’t so bad or that just a few changes were necessary and easily applied if I wanted to fix it. I was and am jealous of those who were fit and skinny because they “were/are that way naturally” it seemed.
Well, I joined a gym and I started going 3 times a week. I got a couple sessions with a personal trainer and I was so excited! About a week later I was complaining to my roommate about how my trainer had worked me so hard the day before and about how I was sore and tired and yet had to back to the gym today. She lovingly admonished me and lectured me on how it would be hard at first and a chore but that it was for my best and the price I had to pay to reach my goal of physical fitness.
When she said that I thought that the same could be said of our Spiritual health and fitness as well. The thought came and went quickly and I didn’t give it much attention after that. That is until I listened to a sermon on 1 Timothy 4:6-8 “6 If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. 7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. 8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”
It is very interesting that Paul uses the example of physical fitness to describe our spiritual growth and health. Just like our physical bodies require special attention, serious effort and hard work to be healthy so our spiritual being requires the same. Spiritual growth and maturity in Christ does not come naturally or come automatically. Many people think and some are even taught that just by sitting in the pews on Sunday they are going to absorb spiritual maturity and leave the church spiritually healthy and in shape. There is a partial truth to that but as we know from the whole Garden of Eden/snake incident, partial truths are dangerous. Going to church and sitting in the pews is a great thing and God commands us to fellowship and to gather with the saints but we deceive ourselves if we think that just sitting in the pews will give us spiritual maturity and fitness.
So how do you exercise yourself towards godliness? 1. By cutting unhealthy things out. This is one that I struggle with greatly both spiritually and physically. There are so many delicious sins out there and just like someone who wants to be physically fit has to quit eating all that junk food, if you want to be fit spiritually you must quit filling yourself with things that are bad for your spirit. Hebrews 12:1 “1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
What is weighing you down as a Christian? What’s holding you back? What junk are you filling yourself with instead of God? If you are unsure ask Him and He will tell you. Whatever it is cast it aside and run after Jesus. Get rid of the baggage, the distractions that have attached themselves to you or even that you yourself are holding onto and just let it go.
What is hard is that sometimes we like the junk, it tastes good, and it’s fun. Sometimes they are even good things like school, friends, family, hobbies and relationships, but you have to ask yourself if you are allowing those good things to take you away from the Best thing, the only thing, that really matters and that is a relationship with Christ Jesus. It may be that whatever is weighing you down isn’t sinful and so you convince yourself that it is ok that you keep hold of it. Remember the parable of the sewer who sprinkled seeds that fell on different kinds of ground. Don’t let yourself be tangled and choked out by the things of this world. Don’t let your spirit suffer and neglect God because you are to busy with other things. Drop them and run to Jesus.
2. You must add good things in. But in order to add things in you must have first cut things out to make room for the things that you need to add in. “I don’t have time to read my Bible or go to Church.” Cut out things in your life until you have time. They might be really “important things” but nothing is as important as knowing and spending time with God. So if you don’t have room to do number 2, go back to number 1 and keep going back and making cuts until you do have room. 2 Peter 1:5-7 “5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” Chase after these things.
Now, before I go on about Spiritual Fitness I have to make a disclaimer. None of this matters or is relevant if you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you are dead spiritually then no matter of exercise is going to help, you are still dead. Jesus says that He is the vine and we are the branches. The branch is connected to the vine at all times, not just Sundays, and if it’s not then it is dead and cannot be nourished and cannot grow or bear fruit. Jesus said that without Him we can do nothing. We have to be connected to Jesus all the time engaging in our relationship with the Lord and fellowshipping with Him. Only then can we bear fruit. We cannot just hop on and off the vine for a little nourishment now and then, it’s just not possible, we are either connected to Him and bearing fruit or we are cut off and thrown into the fire.
3. Engage in activity or ministry. In order to be truly physically fit, diet is never enough and in fact diet is perfected by exercise. For spiritual health there must be an outpouring of the things God has blessed you with. We tend as Christians in this country to just receive and receive. We have knowledge about so many Godly things and truths and yet we never share them or pour them out and people are dying around us. We know a lot of things but we do nothing.
We must be proactive in our pursuit of God. It is called our Christian walk, walking is an action, it moves us forward, even backwards sometimes but it moves us. We need to move spiritually. Actions more than intentions tell us what we truly believe. It truly amazes me sometimes at how we are willing to spend all this effort and time into looking good on the outside when our spiritual man lay on his deathbed inside. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to seem like a chore sometimes but we must persevere if we are to become spiritually fit.
