Dale Ridge church of Christ

            My mother recently gave me and my family a treadmill to use.  Since we have acquired and moved this machine into my and Ruth’s bedroom, Ruth, the children, and I have been taking turns walking and running on it every day.  It is amazing what a difference that exercise can make on our physical bodies.  One might ask “how can we exercise our spiritual selves?”  Let us look to the Bible for the answer to this question.

            Paul wrote in I Timothy 4:8, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”  Paul was not saying that we should not take care of our physical bodies, for he refers to them as “the temple of God” (I Cor. 3:17) and “the temple of the Holy Ghost” (I Cor. 6:19); rather, Paul was stating that compared to godliness, bodily exercise is insignificant.  Exercising godliness is worth more than all things, because it provides benefits not only in this life but also in the life to come – eternal life.

            How do we spiritually exercise?  In 2 Peter 1:2-10, we are told if we add virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity to our faith, we will make our calling and election sure, meaning we will be as God would want us to be.  How do we add these qualities to our spiritual beings?  By studying God’s word, the Bible.  In II Timothy 3:16-17, Paul writes that all scripture enables the man of God to be “perfect and thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”  Through studying our Bibles on a regular basis, we can strengthen our spiritual selves and add those traits that God would desire us to have.  Let us always strive to be spiritually fit.     

Published by Michael  Email This Post  Print This Post
Filed under: Devotional, Michael Carter on December 7th, 2008