SPIRITUAL FITNESS FOR THE NEW YEAR

“Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.   (1 Timothy 4:7b-8 NIV)

A new year invites us to reset our priorities. Many of us will focus on physical health -- dieting, exercising, or finally using that gym membership. Paul reminds us this has value, but he also points us to something far more lasting: training in godliness.

John Ortberg writes in "The Life You've Always Wanted" that if we want to grow spiritually, we must “stop trying and start training.” Trying depends on momentary effort. Training builds steady habits that shape us over time. Spiritual growth doesn’t happen by accident; it grows through intentional practices that open our hearts to God’s transforming work.

This year, consider simple rhythms that strengthen your soul: Prayer as a daily conversation with God. Scripture as nourishment for your soul and guidance for the journey. Worship as a posture of reverence and gratitude. Community as the place where we support one another and grow best.  Devotional reading as the source of encouragement from those who are spiritual trainers. These practices are the gymnasium of the soul. And the promise is clear: godliness brings blessing not only for eternity, but for the life you’re living right now.

If you know of someone like you who would like to be part of a daily spiritual fitness routine this year, encourage them to follow this blog or subscribe to this e-mail through the link at the bottom of the column to the right.

As you step into the new year, may you train -- not try -- and may Christ be formed in you more deeply with every step.   

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™  

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KEEPING OUR EYES ON JESUS

“Let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”  (Hebrews 12:1,2)

The problem with most of us is that we want to overcomplicate this process. We assume that something as valuable as a faith refill ought to cost us something, so we try to acquire it through physical effort. We squeeze even more religious activities into our already overcrowded schedules. We restart our daily devotional (for the ten thousandth time). We run out and buy the latest Christian best seller and start highlighting it with a yellow marker… And, of course, we recommit (again, for the ten thousandth time) to taming that nasty little habit we’ve managed to keep a secret for years.

But it never works. It NEVER works.

Because frenzied activity, even if well-intentioned, saps our strength and dulls our senses. It fills our lives, not with faith but with noise that drowns out His still, small voice. Worst of all, it makes us numb to His often feather-like touch. 

-- Mark Atteberry in “Free Refill: Coming Back for More of Jesus”

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TRAINING WISELY

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”  (1 Timothy 4:8 NLT)

In his book “The Life You’ve Always Wanted”, John Ortberg makes a helpful distinction between trying and training. He says that anyone can try to run a marathon, but only those who train for it will actually accomplish it.

In the same way, anyone can try to be a follower of Christ, but the only people who actually discover the life to which God has called us are those who train for it. Ortberg concludes, “Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training wisely.” Disciples are people who choose to enter into the spiritual disciplines that, if practiced over time, will enable them to become Spirit-energized, grace-filled, joy-soaked disciples who are learning to love God with their whole hearts, souls, minds, and strength while learning to love others the way they have been loved by God. 

-- James A. Harnish in “A Disciple’s Path: Deepening Your Relationship with Christ and the Church”

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UTILIZING THE GIFT

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…”  (Ephesians 2:8 NRSV)

A young couple decided that the wedding gift they received from the groom’s great- grandmother should become a priceless heirloom, so they kept it folded in its original package and stored it in a drawer. On the 25^th anniversary of their marriage, the bride decided to set a beautiful table for dinner using that heirloom, a special lace tablecloth. To her dismay, it fell apart as she took it out of the package. During the years of neglect it had rotted, been partly eaten by moths, and become useless and ruined.

In a similar manner, unless we exercise our gift of faith and are constant in worship and constant in contact with God’s Word, our faith will become dull, static, and stale.

-- adapted from Howard Kramin in “Hebrews: The Fulfillment of Faith”


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FITNESS TRAINING FOR THE NEW YEAR

"Physical training is of some value," Paul tells us in I Timothy 4:8, "but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."

My guess is that our hopes and resolutions for the New Year are quite similar. Like myself, many of you have probably committed to dieting, making better use of your long neglected gym membership and reestablishing a quiet time with God. Our commitments to dieting and gym membership require elaborate preparations and consistent training. After all, we must not only choose our diet, but we must train ourselves to stay away from sweets or that extra serving of mashed potatoes. Similarly, we must not only carve out time in our schedule for the gym, we must commit ourselves to, and stick with, a rigorous training schedule.

Unfortunately, when it comes to our spiritual fitness, we often fail to make any specific preparations at all. So, while we try to spend more time in prayer, we fail to schedule time to be on our knees. Likewise, although we would like to explore fasting, we fail to train ourselves to sustain a fast. While we try to read the Bible, we fail to place ourselves in a small group Bible study that will hold us accountable. If you are like me, you know that trying often gets us nowhere. As John Ortberg teaches so clearly in "The Life You've Always Wanted", if we want to grow into godliness we need to "stop trying and start training." We need to train ourselves in godliness. Spiritual practices and disciplines will help us to grow in the godliness that holds "promise for both the present life and the life to come." 

-- Adapted from the Christian Living Newsletter from Christianbook.com 


SPIRITUAL FITNESS NOTE: If you know of someone like you who would like to be part of a daily spiritual fitness routine this year, encourage them to follow this blog, find us on Facebook, or subscribe via e-mail.


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SPIRITUAL FITNESS

Prayer is to the soul what exercise is to the body. A man who is in good spiritual shape does two things: (1) He consistently eats the nutritious diet of the Scriptures and (2) he consistently spends time in aerobic kneeling. (It's also known as prayer.) These two elements must go together. A marathon runner not only trains efficiently but also eats correctly. Both enable him to have physical endurance. The same is true in the Christian life... Without a diet of Scripture and an exercise routine of prayer, you've got nothing. You can't finish the Christian marathon without them. In fact, you can't even begin.

-- Steve Farrar in “UMMen Magazine”, Spring 1999


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SPIRITUAL FORMATION

Spiritual formation is that dynamic process of receiving through faith and appropriating through commitment, discipline, and action, the living Christ into our own life to the end that our life will conform to, and manifest the reality of Christ's presence in the world.

-- Maxie Dunnam

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STARTING NOW

Though I cannot go back and make a brand new start my friend, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end.

-- Dr. John Maxwell in Making the Most of Your Marriage Video Series

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