Some of you know I workout about 4 days a week with weights and the Chuck Norris torture device(aka the Total Gym.). There are times in scripture where running and exercise are mentioned. You and I well our lives come in contact and interact with others. What we strive for personally has an influence on those interactions. Why do I know this because I just spent half my shift at work being grumpy when I knew better. So you and I both need to work on this. I want to set this all up with the words to an old song. In the book of First Timothy, Paul writes to his friend and young pastor and he warns him about trouble. We’re all going to face it but I’m going to endeavor to help you here.
“When you’re up against a struggle that shatters all your dreams
And your hopes have been cruelly crushed by Satan’s manifested schemes
And you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears
Don’t let the faith you’re standing in seem to disappear”
1 Timothy 4:6-13
“If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed. Do not waste your time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead train yourself to be Godly. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying and everyone should accept it. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle for our hope is in the living God , who is Savior of all people and particularly of all believers. Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith and your purity. Until I get there focus on reading the scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers and teaching them.”
See Timothy was told to pursue physical training but more importantly Training for Godliness. We have to strive and struggle to be more like Christ. It doesn’t just happen. Bible reading and prayer are necessary.
Being a wrestling fan I can tell you those men and women put a lot of work into the way they look and how they move in the ring. I got to shake DDP, Booker T and Kevin Nash’s hands and up close a pro wrestler is very physically intimidating. In Philippians 3:12-14 Paul shows us effort has to be put into being closer to God.
“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing; forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of my race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”
Here’s some more about striving.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just Shadow boxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”
Let me break this down in a personal way. I work out to stay in shape. I’m a 42 yr old diabetic. My body is under attack by a disease. Because of the sin of Adam and Eve you and I have a sin nature, striving to be closer to God after Salvation is to be our goal. Our sinful diseased nature will fight with us as much as someone trying to find an excuse not to exercise such will be the struggle to spend time in prayer and Bible reading. It’s a fight for your attention. Are you going to train for Godliness or not? I can’t answer it for you.
In Romans 7:14-25 Paul talks in great detail about struggling between doing what’s wrong and right. Verses 24-25 is where our hope is. This is a blog of hope and Godly training. “Oh what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: in my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”
Joshua gave the people of Israel a choice.
Joshua 24:14-15
“So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshipped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then chose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Some of you may still need hope. So I’m going to let the late Chuck Colson point you in that direction.
“Where is the hope? I meet millions of people who feel demoralized by the decay around us. The hope that each of us has is not in who governs us, or what laws we pass, or what great things we do as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people. And that’s where our hope is in this country. And that’s where our hope is in life.”
Struggling for Godliness will not be easy but there is hope in the power of God at work in us. A lot of it is going to come down to choices. Who are you going to serve? Will it be your sinful nature or the way God calls you to live.
There is optional reading here I have included a link to a fictional story I did years back about Spiritual warfare. Some of you may have read this and some may have not. Here is a link to the Swordsman.
Now someone may have gotten to this last song and been utterly confused but if you listen to the words you learn that it is a song about God fighting for his people.
No comments:
Post a Comment