Anyone who has gone to the gym and wanted to gain muscle has heard the saying “no pain, no gain.”\u00a0 Trainers will tell you that if you want to strengthen and build your muscles you must put tension on them.\u00a0 They have to work harder than normal.\u00a0 At the time you get fatigued and think to yourself that you can’t go on any further.\u00a0 But at the end of the workout you feel great. Even then next day you are feeling pretty good although you might be a little sore.\u00a0 However, anyone who has done serious weight lifting knows that by the second day, the day you are suppose to work the same group of muscles again, the soreness has really set in.\u00a0 For many people they decide they don’t want to push through the pain and lift weights that day.\u00a0 Sometimes we even come up with excuses to not lift weights that day such as, “I don’t want to hurt myself” or “I don’t want to push myself to hard,” and other excuses.\u00a0 The real reason is we are sore and we know that if we start lifting weights that it is going to be hard.\u00a0 But if we are ever going to get stronger and build more muscle we must push through the soreness.\u00a0 That got me to thinking about our relationship with Christ.<\/p>\n
James 1:2-4 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this<\/i>, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her<\/i> perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”\u00a0 Did you catch that?\u00a0 James told us to rejoice over tension in our life because it is working for our good. If you ask the average Christian, they will say they want to grow in their faith.\u00a0 However, if you ask that same Christian do you want to go through difficult times and they are going to tell you “no.”\u00a0 However, it is impossible in the plan of God for you to grow and not go through difficulty.\u00a0 Just like you need to lift on the second day even though you are really sore to build muscle, we all need to go through difficult times in life for God to grow our faith.\u00a0 Neither one of those scenarios are fun, but they are necessary if we are going to grow in physical and spiritual fitness.\u00a0 I heard a pastor say one time, “You can’t stay where you are and go with God at the same time.”\u00a0 Every morning we must get up and decide, are we going with God today or are we ok where we are at?\u00a0 I know the pain you are feeling is real, I know the anxiety it causes to follow a God you have never seen to a place you don’t know, but you must decide is the reward of knowing and growing in Jesus Christ worth more to you than any temporary pain you may experience?\u00a0 That is the thing about lifting weights on the second day, once your muscles get warmed up you are fine and you are glad that you pushed through it.\u00a0 You just have to decide are you going to push through and endure until the end or not.\u00a0 This principle is true in our walk with Christ as well.\u00a0 God will give you the strength the push through, but you must make up your mind as the old hymn say “Wherever He leads I’ll God.”<\/p>\n
I pray for us all to have strength to push through today that we may be stronger in our walk tomorrow!<\/p>\n
By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anyone who has gone to the gym and wanted to gain muscle has heard the saying “no pain, no gain.”\u00a0 Trainers will tell you that if you want to strengthen and build your muscles you must put tension on them.\u00a0 … Read More