“Exercising Our Faith”

Devotional for 4/1/11

“For physical training is of some value (useful for a little),
but godliness (spiritual training) is useful

and of value in everything and in every way, for it holds a promise

for the present life and also for the life which is to come.”

I Timothy 4/8
amplified bible

Have you ever thought about what it means to “exercise” your faith? If you are like me, I seem to have a natural aversion to any phrase that contains the word “exercise”. I know that exercise takes a lot of hard work, and I am not always willing to sign up for that.

However, exercise does have its benefits. It makes us stronger. It causes our bodies to behave in the way that they were designed to behave. As we exercise, our strength begins to build, and our muscles begin to become more powerful. They are soon able to “carry” bigger loads than before.

This same concept is true in the spiritual aspect, also. Our natural way of being is to rely on what we can see, hear or feel. Faith is “seeing things as if they were” before they really are. Having faith is not a natural thing for us. It is a “super”

natural thing. The more we “exercise” it, the stronger we become in this area.

Resistance is a big part of exercising. Not only do our bodies resist, but our minds resist also. My Trainer says that our battle is really in the mind. It is our mind that decides how little or how much we will exercise. If our mind says that we cannot do it, our bodies will believe it also. If our mind says that it is time to quit, our body will soon agree.

If we are to exercise at all, the first place that we must strengthen is our minds. We must first determine to take the first step there, and then we must follow through with it when our bodies are crying out for relief. This is the same for us spiritually. We must first determine to have faith in the Lord, and then we must determine to not give up hope when all “seems” hopeless.

The Holy Spirit aids us in our effort to exercise our faith. He “leads us into all truth” the Bible says. It is His job to help us, and I have found that He is very, very good at His job. He seems to know exactly what to remind us of when the going gets tough. He seems to know exactly how to encourage us with “just” the right verse at “just” the right time. He reminds us of all of those whom are watching, and helps us to determine to give it our “all”. I guess you could say that He is our spiritual “Trainer”. Just as it is my physical Trainer’s job to encourage me when I feel like giving up, it is the Holy Spirit’s job to encourage us in the same way spiritually.

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have so much faith? If you look closely at their lives, you will most likely see that they have walked through a lot of “resistance”. In order to exercise our faith, we must have situations in our lives that require faith. As we walk triumphantly through each one of these situations, our faith is strengthened. We can see that they have made us stronger, and our fear begins to fade. We become “seasoned” in our faith, and we begin to “step out” in it more and more. Others begin to look at our lives and what they see causes them to want the same thing in their own life. This is when we begin to share our faith, and this gives us the ability to influence others in their own “walks” of faith.

I love how the Lord makes us stronger by exercising. It is a way of us “partnering” with Him in order to complete His will for us. He will do His part, but we must also do ours. We must allow Him to lead us into real life situations where the exercising of our faith is the only way out. He knows how to strengthen us, and it always includes some type of resistance.

What type of resistance are you facing in your life today? Is it a physical resistance, or a spiritual one? Could it be that you have found yourself in a situation that you really don’t like because of the choices that someone else has made? Is it that you see someone you love who is a really hard worker, but they have suddenly found themselves out of work and there seems to be nothing that you can do to help them? Perhaps you see a person who is addicted to drugs or alcohol and you don’t seem to be able to “reach” them. All of these are difficult situations. The one thing they all have in common is that they are each a wonderful opportunity for us to begin to exercise our faith. We can pray for each one of them, and we can have that faith for them that they may not have for themselves.

Thank you, Lord,

for allowing us to partner with you in your ability to
“make a way where there seems to no way”.

Help us to exercise our faith in you, \

that we may grow stronger in our ability to trust you.
Help our ability to trust in you to influence others

to do the same in their own lives.
Thank you that you are strong yourself,

because you have exercised your own faith
by trusting in your Father. I love that you never ask us

to do anything that you, yourself, have not already done.

In your name we pray, and we ask these things,
Amen.

Written by Beverley A. Napier

March 31, 2011