Thursday, May 30, 2024

Listen to the Word

…Train yourself to be godly. (1 Timothy 4:7)

Most of us could not run a marathon today, no matter how hard we tried. It just isn’t in us. If we wanted to be able to run a marathon, we would have to enter a life of training that included proper routines of exercise, rest, and nutrition. The right training routine would reshape our bodies and make us capable of doing something we are currently unable to do. The key to success in distance running is not trying hard - it is training well.

The same is true in spiritual growth. We assume that the key to becoming like Christ is to try really hard: I will do my best to be compassionate, joyful, patient, and so on. But no matter how hard we try, we fail. It just isn’t in us. If we want to be like Jesus, we must enter a life of spiritual training. If we rearrange our lives around spiritual exercises like prayer, worship, soaking in Scripture, fellowship, solitude, and service, God uses those practices to develop our spiritual muscles and make us capable of living as Jesus would live if he were in our place.

Live the Word

As an act of spiritual training, declare a fast. Choose something you normally enjoy as a part of your daily life (perhaps food, or television, or the internet), and choose to refrain from experiencing it for the rest of this day. Ask God to use this exercise to show you that he is the only thing you can’t live without.