Exercise part 3
From what I understand about exercising--and I used to work out, around middle school when I wrestled and played football so many moons ago--the more you do it, the stronger you get. Paul writes kind of extensively about the journey from babes (in Christ) to full blown maturity. And it is a journey. A never ending everlasting life long journey. That's what life is really all about: It is a journey into the heart of the matter. Which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. Look at 2 Peter 3:18, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen." Grow in grace. We have been given grace. That's a done deal. But, well, let me quote another passage: "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passesth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:16-19). Did you catch that key word? Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Exercising your faith is what makes it strong. And it can start small. It should start small. Don't despise small beginnings. Baby steps are still steps forward. And as we saw yesterday, moving forward is vitally important. So don't judge yourself too harshly. Don't get down on yourself when you mess up. You can't learn from your mistakes if you never make any. And you learn more from failure than from success. You don't have to be the strongest guy in the room--grace or faith-wise--as long as your using the grace and the faith that you've got. As long as you're growing. Stretching. Beginning to comprehend the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of God's love for us. And I'm kind of convinced that we will never be able to fully understand those dimensions of God's love. Because His love is too big. Too good. Too deep. Too wide. It never stops. Never ends. And the more we find out there is, the more we find out there is. If that makes any sense. The more answers we get, the more questions we find. That's not a bad thing though. That's a good thing. Because if we think we have it all figured out we can grow complacent. We can stop looking, searching, wondering... and finding. We can not only stop growing, but we can lose the growth we've gained. Its important to stretch. To grow. To exercise. It keeps us healthy. So don't let anything stop you. If you stumble, let Jesus--let LOVE--pick you up. Hold you up. Keep you up. One more memory verse to end this Rant: "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 1:24). He CAN keep us from falling. But we have to trust Him to do it. We have to LET Him do it. Growing comes from exercising. Growing in grace (and faith) comes from the knowledge of God. The knowlege of love. The love inside us coming out of us as we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with!