{"id":21350,"date":"2017-04-09T11:10:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-09T18:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=10388"},"modified":"2017-04-09T11:10:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T18:10:46","slug":"april-9-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/04\/09\/april-9-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"April 9, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cPatient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God\u2019s will.\u00a0 Then you will receive all that He has promised.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Hebrews 10:36<\/span><\/p>\n

Workout<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

This morning, in the middle of doing 100 flutter kicks, I thought, \u201cThese feel like I am burning to death.\u201d And still, I persisted until I had done exactly 100. Why do I do this to myself?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPhysical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come\u201d<\/em> (1 Timothy 4:8).<\/span><\/p>\n

I work out hard so that I can have a strong body. If my body is strong, I will be a healthier individual, less likely to develop osteoporosis and high blood pressure. I will likely live longer, with a better quality of life than if I did not work out regularly. Yet the process of staying in good physical shape is painful. Right in the middle of doing flutter kicks, when I still have 50 more to do but my abs already feel like they are on fire, I keep going because I have not yet reached my goal. I know that as soon as I finish the task, I will be instantly relieved. I know that the more often I undergo these exercises, the stronger I will get and the less they will hurt. So it makes sense to me, as an athlete, to compare my physical training with my spiritual training. \u201c\u2026work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear\u201d<\/em> (Philippians 2:12b).<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a workout routine, working out one\u2019s salvation is an individual task. No one else can do my workout for me; no one else can pray or study the Bible for me, either. But the spiritual disciplines are not merely a list of simple do\u2019s and don\u2019ts, or things we accomplish to get closer to God. Rather, we listen to Jesus personally, and He guides each one as He sees fit. Some of these \u201cexercises\u201d He uses to grow our spiritual muscles will likely look different from person to person. It\u2019s ultimately a matter of our individual heart with the Lord. Sometimes it will be harder to endure than others. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My spiritual life is not a matter of comparing how I am doing against how others around me appear to be doing. When I work out physically, my form and focus will suffer if I suddenly start looking at everyone around me and comparing my body to theirs. Spiritually, this is also true. If Jesus is the ultimate personal trainer, then HE is the one whose form we should copy, HE is the one whose approval is required, and HE is the comparison to which my life is measured. When it burns the worst, we keep going because we know that the prize at the end of the race is worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDear Lord, please grant us endurance to not give up. Lead on, Lord Jesus, lead on. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPatient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God\u2019s will.\u00a0 Then you will receive […]<\/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-21350","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-5ym","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21350","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=21350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}