{"id":20667,"date":"2017-10-17T00:05:31","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T07:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=11792"},"modified":"2017-10-17T00:05:31","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T07:05:31","slug":"october-17-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/10\/17\/october-17-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"October 17, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cNo discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it<\/em>.\u201d Hebrews 12:11 (NIV)<\/span><\/p>\n

All Years\u2019 Resolutions Part 4 <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

I believe we all try to stay \u201cfit\u201d to some degree. It makes my \u201cAll Years Resolutions\u201d list every year. However, in I Timothy 4:8, Paul reminds me, \u201cFor 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.\u201d <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I agree that staying physically fit does have value, but I really desire \u201cgodliness\u201d for the present and the life to come. Looking up how \u201cgodliness\u201d is defined, I found several different answers. The majority defined it as \u201cChrist-likeness.\u201d One of Christ\u2019s attributes was His peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

My soul feels \u201cfit\u201d when I walk in Christ\u2019s peace. How does that play out in my everyday life? As one example, I have to practice forgiveness on a moment-by-moment basis so that no \u201cthing\u201d or no \u201cone\u201d can disrupt the peace that Jesus has given me. This does not always come easily, but as a choice. \u201cI can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me\u201d<\/em> (Philippians 4:13). I choose by an act of my will to forgive a person for belittling me, or hurting my feelings, or for making me \u201ctemporarily\u201d angry. Yes, I used the term \u201ctemporarily\u201d because a person can only make me angry or upset if I let them. If I take the offense, I make Satan happy. Instead, I would rather please God by choosing to forgive that person.<\/span><\/p>\n

To forgive means to cease to feel resentment and the need for revenge against the offender. A well-known evangelist explained unforgiveness as being like a person taking poison and hoping the other person would die. The poison of unforgiveness continues to poison if I do not choose to forgive. After making the choice to forgive, I have to follow up by asking God to forgive my anger or offense because my sin is just as wrong as the person who sinned against me. We both sinned against God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now if I bit the person\u2019s head off, or made an unkind comment, then I also need to ask that person for their forgiveness. As I choose to pray for God to bless that person, I feel free and \u201cfit\u201d and back to walking in His \u201cperfect peace\u201d as I continue to trust Him to lead me in His ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLord, as I discipline my \u201cspiritual body\u201d to stay on track to \u201cspiritual fitness\u201d on the road to Christ-likeness, may it produce in me a harvest of righteousness and peace. Help me run to You when I need to make that choice to forgive as You did for me. Thank You, Lord.\u201d<\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNo discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5nl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20681,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20667\/revisions\/20681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}