Living a 220 life

Learning from physical fitness

March 22, 2010 on 4:34 pm | In The Word, obedience, suffering | No Comments

When Soldiers deploy to Iraq one of the most popular past times is working out. Many Soldiers will hit the gym more than they ever have in their entire lives; I’m one of them. Over the last seven months I can proudly say I’ve lost nearly 35 pounds. I can also sheepishly admit I came to Iraq seven months ago with a little extra baggage. :) None the less, I started working out with the intent of surprising Beth with a new and improved husband when I come home. Little did I know the Lord had other intentions for my strict diet and physical fitness.

You see, as I began getting into my workout regime I began to enjoy the discipline because I was seeing the results of my hard work. That’s when the Lord grabbed my attention. In 1 Thessalonians 4:4 we’re told believers are to “learn to control his own body.” (NIV) I began to realize dieting isn’t easy and it takes getting used to. I had to learn from my incredible wife what foods were good and what foods were bad for my intended goals. Losing weight became much more than simply ‘wanting’ to lose weight; no, losing weight became both a learning process as well as hard work.

The Lord revealed growing spiritually is very similar to physical fitness. We go through life with spiritual blue berry pie’s calling our name and tugging at our desires. We know we shouldn’t indulge in the pie because it will harm our relationship with the Lord, but all too often we give into the temptation out of nothing more than a lack in spiritual discipline. 1 Corinthians 9:27 says, “I discipline my body and bring it under strict control”. Friends, are you letting your spiritual body run wild or are you bringing it under strict control?

As I began working out I saw other Soldiers in the gym who were very physically fit. I would all too often compare myself to the fittest of guys in the gym and get discouraged because my abs weren’t as well defined. Then I realized Christians do the same thing. We know what we’d like our spiritual lives to look like, but get discouraged when it doesn’t match up. In essence, spiritually, we’re stepping into the gym on our first day and expecting to look like a professional body builder. It doesn’t work that way folks. We need to ‘learn’ to discipline our bodies and grow into a spiritually well defined body.

Beth explained to me that when you’re trying to get into shape, you can never out work a bad diet. She told me if I eat unhealthy food I could work out all day long and continue to get fat. The same is true spiritually. Unless you’re eating a healthy diet of God’s Word every day, it doesn’t matter how disciplined you are, you’ll continue to fail. You must off set your spiritual discipline with large quantities of God’s Word.

My friends, let me encourage you. At first, a healthy diet is difficult because we’re used to eating bad. It doesn’t take long though, before the diet and working out become a fun part of life. Consider both a physical and spiritual workout plan and diet. The Lord wants to bless your fitness both physically and spiritually. Dig into the Word and begin bringing your body under strict discipline and see if He doesn’t turn you into a spiritual body builder. AMEN!