Day 20 – Do I Have To Exercise?

I taught group fitness classes, or aerobics as we called it then, for over 20 years. Sometimes the workouts were intense and painful and there were days I didn’t want to go but I benefited from the results exercise produced. My heart and lungs stayed healthy and my body stayed strong and fit. 

During exercise, our bodies are pushed to and beyond their limits. Our heart, lungs, muscles, and bones grow stronger, our endurance increases, and our stress decreases. When we don’t exercise, our bodies grow limp and muscles weak, we lose endurance and our bodies fail us when we need them. 

Like our bodies, faith needs to be exercised because when it is not, it becomes weak. Our trials and troubles are like workouts. We may not want to go through them but the results produced will be beneficial. James may not have been thinking about exercise when he wrote James 1:2-3 but we know he understood trials and their benefits. 

 James 1:2-3 (NIV)

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

During Rod’s illness, God put us through an intense workout. We weren’t thrilled with the experience but I’m thankful for what it produced. Our faith was stretched, taken to its limits, pushed and pulled, and we gained endurance, strength, perseverance, and a greater understanding and appreciation of God’s unfailing love, faithfulness and power. 

Whatever trial we face, we can thank God because it can be an exercise in faith and the end result can be joyous. 

© 2019 Robin R King