Physical Training. Those two words give me goosebumps. I have dreaded physical activity for years. I have always admired people who have the stamina and the discipline to train. I admire people who every day go swimming for hours, perfecting their technique. I admire people who get up early to go running and no matter the day, sunny or rainy do it.
I always have the best excuses not to walk even on the treadmill, which is next to my bed. I have to make a real effort to turn the machine on, get as many shows as I can on my phone so I can walk a mile while watching. I wish I was motivated for physical training the same way I am motivated to devour books in hours. I have even perfected techniques to get the gist of a book in a very short period of time.
I bring this up because of some of the verses we studied last Sunday at The Rock. I am thinking of 1 Timothy 4: 7-8 where it says: “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, 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.”
Train yourself to be godly! How can we do that? First, we need to know that, just as our laziness conspires against our physical training, our sin nature conspires against us when it comes to be godly. It should be of interest to us to know that “holy” in its original language, either Hebrew or Greek means “to be set apart.” That tells us that we need to separate ourselves from what is not holy and to replace those things with things that are.
If Bible reading is not a daily routine in your life, let me encourage you to start it. If doing a daily devotion is not part of your daily life, let me strongly encourage you to start it as well There are so many places where you can subscribe and get great devotionals that will help you face your day in a godly way. The one I use is Today in the Word, from my alma mater, Moody Bible Institute https://www.todayintheword.org.
And do not be afraid of writing your thoughts in your Bible! Recently, I started a great project that is helping me a lot: I bought a Bible with wide margins where I write some thoughts from the text in each page. I am doing this for Victoria, my daughter. My plan is that one day, when she’s grown up and I finish this project, In due time, I will give it to her so hopefully she will read God’s Word and see what her old man thought about it. And yet, as I am writing it, this is a great blessing to me as well!
May God help us to be holier and holier every day. May we break godly sweat every day; let’s strive to flex our spiritual muscle because, as Scripture says, that will be the greatest blessing for us all.
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