Spiritual Athletes - 3/2/06

1 Timothy 4:6-7, “…You will be made strong by the words of the faith and the good teaching which you have been following. But do not follow foolish stories that disagree with God’s truth, but train yourself to serve God.”

This sounds like God’s exercise program. Like an athlete training for his or her event, we must “train (ourselves) to serve God.” Except we don’t train for a specific sport. We train for living according to God’s plan and His will rather than our own. This will take an incredible amount of endurance since we will be in the game for the rest of our lives. But, the training is ongoing – we train ourselves to serve God by constantly living in His word (the Bible) and practicing the teachings we find there.

Like the Olympics, we are each athletes who bring to God our own special abilities that He strengthens for the big game. Not every athlete is a runner or skier or snowboarder. Likewise, not all of God’s athletes are equipped with the same skills. Some are teachers or prophets or musicians or missionaries, for example. God can use anything you bring to Him, to further the kingdom and spread the word of His Good News.

The verse above also says we’ll be made strong by words of faith and good teaching. We’ll need that strength. Like any good sporting event, there is competition. The enemy is training his own athletes to compete against God’s plan. The verse states there are, “foolish stories that disagree with God’s truth.”

We need train every day to stand strong against misleading, foolish stories and stand firm for the ultimate truth, with the ultimate Coach guiding us. Every day we compete for Him. And, we shouldn’t worry about how much we can accomplish at any given time. Just do it! A coach wouldn’t have an athlete in training attempt an Olympic skiing long jump if he or she almost broke a hip on the bunny slope. Like I wrote about David, we will practice with Him for increasingly more challenging tasks – and greater victories. We just need to step up and accept the challenge. So, hit the gym! Open your Bible and start building some spiritual muscle so you can be a formidable presence in God’s fight.

“we will run and never stop
yeah we all will stand together
taking everything we are
and then praising Him forever."