Spiritual Exercise

1 Timothy 4: 8 “For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come” So, beginning of the year marks the opportunity for those, “lets get in shape” days, and with it, comes a whole lot of pain. Not because you are not exercising right (well probably that too), but because (for the most part) your body is not used to exercising, but eating and sitting (is it just me?), and your muscles are like whaaaaat???

We started exercising again and naturally my muscles are a bit sore, and naturally we would want to spring-clean and rearrange the house right?

So as we were cleaning and moving, I got to a point where I was hurting so much I could not bend down to clean a table, and I thought to myself: “It hurts, I don’t even want to clean anymore – I just want to lie down”. This got me thinking about what Paul talks about when he says to Timothy that we should be exercising our body and our spirits.

I immediately realised that when we are hurt, physically or emotionally, we want to give up, we want to give in, because it hurts too much to continue, but this is exactly why spiritual exercise is so beneficial.

The spiritual exercise makes us stronger – supernaturally, so that when we are not capable of holding the weight that we feel we bare in our natural (physical and emotional) state, we can give it to God and let go, or tap in to His wisdom to be able to carry on. It is also necessary to be spiritually exercised for others, so that we can help them lift those weights or pray about the hurt and lift their spirits.

Oh man I am having so much fun with gym puns… I also realised that healing takes time, so we need to give it time (I can hear myself quoting Fault in our stars – but it is true). During the time that we heal, or exercise even more so that the pain eventually goes away because we are stronger than what we feel, we need to make sure that we do not give up just because it hurts, we have to make the most of the time we have, for pain is temporary, but the support we can give and the spiritual growth that can change lives and feelings, is forever, and is far more valuable.