*Going the Distance

Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.
1st Timothy 4:7-8 The Message

How's it going with those New Year resolutions? How many new gym members do you know who are not going 3 or 4 times a week now, but are lucky to make it once or twice? Thinking about going is not the same as going...

Did you know that the trainers tell those who regularly go to the gym to wait till two weeks into January and they'll have a better chance of getting a machine when they want it. And if they wait until the end of the month, there will be no wait.

If you are one who is on a regular exercise program, you know the only immediate effect you have after the first day at the gym is pain...and the second day...and the third day...and any time you up the ante on your routine. However, if you remain faithful and are disciplined, you progress, training and developing the necessary muscles to get the job done.

If you just go to the gym and hear about all the things the machines can help you do, but you just stand there without getting to know the equipment, you don't reap the benefits. It's the time well-spent in the gym that equips us to lift that weight or go the distance.

Our spiritual walk is exactly the same. We will have ample opportunity to exercise our faith, but will we? Or do we quit because the only immediate effect we got was pain? And any time a crisis comes, we feel it again.

However, if we remain faithful and are disciplined, we progress, and we train and develop the necessary faith to get the job done. If we just go to the church and hear about our Savior, but don't get to know Him or utilize the equipment (the Word of God, for instance), we're not going to reap the benefits of being a Christian. It's the time well-spent in the Word that equips us to lift that weight AND go the distance.

Jesus went the distance for you.

Prayer:

Father,
         Birth in us a new desire for You and Your Word. Help us to keep our priorities in the proper order. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.