Planning a Spiritual Workout

What in the world is a spiritual workout? It's not a phrase you ever hear, right? Many people shudder when they hear the word workout at all because they hate to exercise. Just like our bodies, our spirits need to work and grow. I think of my spirit and soul like I think of my muscles - if I don't work them regularly, they will atrophy and die. If I work them out, they stretch, they grow, and they gain strength. Is it comfortable? No, but growth doesn't happen when we're comfortable. Something us exercise nuts say is that you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable if you want to make changes. The same saying is true for spiritual growth. We can only grow spiritually if we work those "muscles" and stretch outside our comfort zone. 

So how do we plan a spiritual workout? Here are some ideas that might help you plan a workout time with God. 
1. Start with prayer... every time. 
If you want your workout to be successful and beneficial to you, pray about it first. Ask God to open your heart to his word so that you can learn what he wants you to. 
2. Choose your resource. 
What are you going to work on in this workout? Are you working your way through a particular book or study? If so, go into it ready to learn and grow. Make sure that anything you read gets tested in scripture. If you read something that bothers you, go back to the Bible and find the truth. If you're reading your Bible, do so with a heart ready to absorb God's words of wisdom. 
3. Don't give up, even when it gets hard.
Just like a physical workout, you're going to encounter things that make you want to give up sometimes. Maybe you find a passage of scripture that you just can't make sense out of or an author writes something that really bothers you. When you hit these points, DON'T QUIT!!! Go back to #1 and repeat. Pray over whatever is bothering you and ask the Lord to help you through it. Ask someone for help - your preacher, a trusted friend, teacher, or mentor - you may be surprised at how much another believer can help you through.
4. Set a workout schedule and stick to it. 
If you want to get the most out of your workouts, you have to set time aside on a regular basis to do them. It's the only way you will be successful with any goals you set yourself. This works for both spiritual and physical workouts. You can't crack your Bible open once a year and expect to gain knowledge and understand God's word better just like you can't exercise once a year and expect to gain muscle and lose fat. All of our muscles need to be worked on a regular basis to make a difference, and our spirits are the same. If you want to grow stronger in Christ, you have to work those spiritual muscles regularly and let the Spirit teach and train you! 

I hope you are ready to schedule your spiritual workout now! Don't be intimidated. Every journey begins with a step, and you will only gain strength as you spend more time in God's word.   

Challenge Check-Up - Progress on 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

 

 

I gave you, my readers, a challenge in Chapter 6 of "Becoming a Proverbs 31 Woman." It was to take the passage above and reflect on it and how it relates to you personally and your spiritual energy. I then asked you to brainstorm your ideas and take one particular idea and work to make it reality. I hope that each of you has done this, but if you haven't it's OK. We're going to talk about it in today's blog, and you can do the activity later! 

 

This is probably my favorite analogy of our spiritual energy and the effort God expects us to put into it. One of the reasons I like it is because I'm a big believer in exercise and staying fit and healthy, so I understand what Paul is talking about here. Training my body requires discipline and dedication, and my results suffer when those things are lacking. Training myself spiritually is similar - when I don't work to build my spiritual energy, my life reflects it in negative thinking, interactions, and results. 

 

You may be thinking that Paul's words sound good but don't make much sense to you. If that's the case, let's look at this together. Paul is telling us that we train ourselves spiritually - we grow stronger in Christ's word and live for him in everything we do. Spiritual training requires self-discipline, so we make sure that the things we do, the places we go, and the people we spend our time with are helping us grow closer to Christ, not taking us away or causing us to lose our focus on him. Paul lived as an example to those he taught so that he wouldn't miss out on his prize after the race was run. If you are an example to someone, this message is for you - make sure you aren't just teaching others to live for Christ and living however you want to when they're not around. 

 

As Christians, we shouldn't run around aimlessly with no goal in mind; we should know what we're working towards and set out to accomplish it. Like any great athlete, we're striving for the prize. But, like Paul says, our prize is eternal - we're striving for life with our Lord in heaven forever. I don't know about you, but that makes me want to work harder on my spiritual energy and personal relationship with my savior.   

Does the Body Matter?

Since we are all spiritual beings, does our body matter? Does God care how we treat this body we have? I've known people on either end of the spectrum with this question - there are those who watch everything they put in their bodies and vigorously exercise regularly, and there are those who eat whatever they want and practice the remote-lifting exercise as they watch TV each night. I tend to fall more on the good diet and exercise end of the spectrum, but I've always wondered if God involves himself in our lives this way. 

I've heard people say that this body doesn't matter since we're all looking forward to heaven, and I agree in a way. This body is not the end-all-be-all of our existence, and I'm thankful for that because my body is a bit of a mess with herniated discs, arthritis, and high blood pressure. I look forward to the day I enter heaven and receive my new, spiritual body. However, I don't think the fact that we get a new body in heaven is any excuse for us to mistreat the body we've been given here. 

Let's look at some verses together and see what God has to say about the topic. 
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
Romans 6:11-14 - "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
Romans 12:1-2 - "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."

I could keep going, but I think these verses provide enough food for thought. What do we learn about our bodies from these passages? Our bodies are God's temple; we are to offer our bodies to God to be used for righteousness, not sin; our spiritual act of worship is offering our bodies to God as living sacrifices and allowing him to transform us. 

I get the impression that God does indeed care how we treat the body we've been given. Think about this for a minute - if you mistreat your body and end up trapped in your own bed at 600 lbs or lose a foot to diabetes due to obesity or get lung cancer from smoking for years, how are you serving God? What glory do you bring him by eating or smoking or drugging yourself into an early grave? 

Look at the passages above again - we have to break out of the world's pattern. We aren't here to serve our own nature; we're here to serve God and do his will. If we're too busy pleasing ourselves and making poor choices for our mortal bodies, we aren't leaving time or energy to work for the Lord and his eternal kingdom. 


 

Spiritual Energy

The month of March is dedicated to Chapter 6: An Energetic Woman. I don't think anyone would argue that the Proverbs 31 Woman is anything but energetic. She could run circles around any of us! However, in this post we're not going to worry about her physical energy so much - we'll get to that next week. I want to talk to you about spiritual energy and its importance to each one of us. 

I'm not talking about mystical spiritual energy found in crystals or your inner being. I'm talking about the energy between you and God and the things you do in your life that either create a stronger bond between you or pull you farther apart. Things like regular prayer, Bible reading and study, and focus on accomplishing God's will in your life nurture your spiritual energy and make it stronger. Neglecting these parts of your life drain your spiritual energy and pull you away from God, thus making your relationship weak. 

The Bible is full of examples of people who worked on maintaining a strong connection with God throughout their lives: King David, Paul, and Jesus are some of my favorite examples. We can read how each of these people relied on God in every part of their lives, and we can often see how things go for them when they allow their connection to God to lapse. One thing they can also show us is how we can go to God when our spiritual energy is flagging, and he will build us back up. 

David writes several of the psalms when he is in dark places in his life, and he always knows that God is his refuge during those times. Here are a few psalms you can check out to see what I'm talking about: 5,13, and 17. There are many more, but these provide a good start for you. Even when things looked hopeless for him, David turned to God for his strength, and he was never disappointed. God always provided him with hope, refuge, and love. 

Paul suffered his fair share of calamities for the Lord's sake, but he was never shaken. In 2 Corinthians 6:3-10, Paul reiterates his dedication to God through all things both good and bad. This is one of my favorite passages because Paul is so passionate in his faith and love for God. 

Jesus lived his life to please God in all ways, and we can read through each of the gospels and see his faithfulness over and over again. Even when he was at his lowest, he relied on his Father for the strength he needed. In Luke 22:42-44, we can see Jesus' anguish as he faces the cross, and we can see where he goes for strength. He trusts God to give him what he needs to get through death on the cross for our sins. When he dies on that cross, he commits his spirit into God's hands. I don't think we can find a better example of strong relationship and positive spiritual energy! 

Spend some time thinking about your level of spiritual energy this week. Are you relying on Bible reading you did years ago to sustain your spirit today? What are you doing each day to nurture your relationship with the Lord and make it stronger?