But more than that, I count everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [and of growing more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with Him—a joy unequaled]. For His sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all garbage, so that I may gain Christ,
Philippians 3:8 Amplified Bible
God’s teaching us that we lose nothing in this life if we have Him, if we gain Christ. To gain Christ. Wow. We count everything loss to know Jesus. And, you know what, gaining Jesus is everything. It’s true.
For a lot of reasons, my wife and I like to exercise. Exercising helps us with the physical demands of life. Physical exercise is helpful, but it’s not enough.
For many reasons, Annie and I like to exercise and build up our faith in Jesus by reading the Bible, listening to good Christian teaching, singing to the Lord, talking about Jesus and all the wonderful truths He’s teaching us, by listening to the Holy Spirit as He teaches us how to truly love each other better by not allowing self-pity, worry, unbelief, etc, have any place in our lives as we learn that we really can trust Jesus in all things – even the past and future. Jesus is teaching us to exercise our faith in the face of fear and it’s working. We’re getting stronger in Him. As we learn more about Jesus, He’s calming us down and teaching us to trust in Him with all our heart. There’s nothing like it. As we exercise our faith, we can feel Jesus in us encouraging us and giving us His courage and the assurance that He really does have and that He really will “keep” us – always.
While there are many benefits to physical exercise, there are far more benefits contained in exercising and building up our faith in God. Many more. In fact, God calls building our faith and being His disciples by doing the Word the difference between life and death.
Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”
1 Timothy 4:8
To stand on His Word. To know The Prince of Peace. To really have His peace reigning in our life. Mmmm. Amazing. Just amazing.
“Annie, let’s pick up the Bible and do some more reps.”
God bless,
Mark
Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.