Welcome to our first Fitness Friday posting!
I know many of us struggle with the idea of adding yet one more thing to our busy lives. There are so many balls to juggle, so many hats to wear, so many things we have to do that we think, “Really? Now I have to find the time and energy to exercise? Really?!?” Or maybe you already have incorporated workouts into your daily routine, but see it as another thing to check off the to-do list. Either way, let’s take a look at God’s truth for a moment:
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity. God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)
What if we performed our daily exercise as a time of worship? What if we placed our workout time before Him as an offering? What if we looked at it as a time to “fix [our] attention on God’? What if we saw it as a time to come to the end of ourselves and our strength so that we would be renewed by His power and for His glory? Definitely a different mindset, right?
How can we do this? Make a plan to move your body today—take a walk at lunch, go to a class at the gym, take the dog for a walk, whatever you choose—but before you begin, reread the verses above. During your workout, come back to these verses. Try personalizing them. Wherever you see the word “you,” replace it with your name. Read the verses out loud and let them seep into your mind and heart throughout your time of exercise.
You may find that as your physical self is occupied with the exercise, mentally you are able to experience God’s truth for you a little more deeply and you’ll be changed from the inside out. The more you change the focus of your exercise time to Him, the more your exercise time will change from a “have to” to a “get to.”
