Some Spiritual Strength Training

In my eternally frustrating quest to make physical fitness a part of my daily habits, I decided to hire a personal trainer one day.  The woman who the gym assigned to me was young, energetic, healthy, and also happened to be a former student of mine.  I was older, tired, out of shape, and well aware of how much math I had required her to do in my class.  I loved having her as a student, even though she never enjoyed math itself as a subject.  But as we started to work together on strengthening me, I could feel a lot of empathy for how much it must have felt like I was pushing her limits in math class.  She was certainly pushing mine in the gym!

I got a new appreciation.

I wish I could say I stayed with it and am now in the strongest and best shape of my life.  But I did not.  I jumped into the deep end of the physical fitness pool before I had developed enough mental stamina and commitment to do the hard work of weight training.  I put the physical fitness cart before the horse and wasn’t prepared for what I had signed up for.  Even with that, though, the few sessions I attended with my personal trainer gave me a new appreciation for the amazing body my Creator gifted me with, how much I could accomplish that I thought myself incapable of, and the importance of resistance in getting stronger.

God is using His own hands, applying just the right amount of pressure. 

My Sunday School lesson this week brought all those strength training experiences back to my mind.  We were studying Jeremiah 18 – the section where God commands Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house.  God explains to Jeremiah that He is shaping Israel just like the potter is shaping a clay vessel.  God is using His own hands, applying just the right amount of pressure.  Sometimes there is a lump in the clay that just isn’t working right, and the potter has to take the clay and start all over again.  But in the end, that clay becomes a fire-hardened, useful, beautiful container, ready to both be filled with the living water of God and to pour out that water to others.  While God is talking about Israel in this section, He also works with us in the same way, if we allow ourselves to be molded and shaped like the clay.

It required levels of trust I wasn’t completely comfortable with. 

Molded and shaped – that was the same thing my personal trainer wanted to do with me.  And in order to do that, she had to subject me to some pressure in the form of resistance.  Sometimes, she would have me hold on to some straps attached to the wall, as I leaned backwards, putting my body diagonal to the floor.  That resistance against the cords would force muscles throughout my entire body to tighten.  That exercise was frightening to me.  I had to trust my body to have the kind of strength to keep me from collapsing.  I had to trust her that she knew how much to push me.  I had to trust that when it got too much, she would know how to step in and keep me from getting hurt.  And I had to communicate when it felt like I was reaching my limit.  It required levels of trust I wasn’t completely comfortable with.  But if I wanted to achieve my goals and grow in my strength, I had to believe in her and myself.  Other exercises forced me to lean into the wall, instead of against it.  Some exercises forced me to pull against weights – other required me to push against them.  But there was always resistance – some sort of pressure.  And often there was leaning, whether it was into or away from something. 

We have to resist in the right direction in order to become strong.

It is a law of physics that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  If I had leaned toward the cords on the wall instead of leaning backwards against the cords, I would have fallen forward.  If I was supposed to put my hands against the wall and lean forward, I would have fallen over if I had leaned backwards instead.  We have to know what direction to lean toward.  One direction will strengthen us and make us stronger and healthier, and the other direction will cause us to fall and get hurt.  We have to resist in the right direction in order to become strong.

Your resistance training needs to always be leaning away from the world and into God.

So what does all of this have to do with Jeremiah and the potter?  Remember how God knows how to apply just the right amount of pressure to make the beautiful clay pot?  There is an equal and opposite reaction going on.  If the clay didn’t apply some pressure back towards the potter, it would just collapse.  The potter has to make the clay lean into his hand to form it.  That is the same process that happens when God is forming us.  When God applies some pressure in your life, you have two choices.  You can either lean away from Him or you can lean into Him.  If you lean away from Him, there will be nothing substantial enough to catch you – you will fall and hurt yourself.  But if you lean into Him, you will be safe and you will also be developing stronger spiritual muscles.  And as everyone in the fitness world knows, that strong core of muscles is what keeps you safe even when you are not in the gym.  It allows you to stand strong on your own.  It allows you to resist pressures of the world that want to topple you over.  Your resistance training needs to always be leaning away from the world and into God.

The leaning and trusting when you are feeling some pressure from God is hard. 

Sometimes, just like in that exercise I told you about, the leaning and trusting when you are feeling some pressure from God is hard.  Sometimes His pressure is to convict you of something you are doing wrong.  You can either repent and lean into Him, or get defensive and lean away.  Sometimes His pressure is to make you wait on His timing.  You can either trust that He will give you good things when it is His plan, or you can get frustrated and angry and lean away.  Sometimes His pressure is allowing things in your life that are painful, unexpected, and against everything that your heart desires.  You can either trust that He would never allow that pressure if you were not able to be strengthened by it, leaning into Him.  Or you can become bitter and get stuck in the asking “why” and demanding an answer.  You can run away and the pressure will make you fall.

It takes a lot of trust.

It takes a lot of trust.  It takes more trust than I feel I have sometimes.  Not only do I have to trust that what I am doing is right, I have to trust that God knows what He is doing, always.  I have to trust that He loves me enough that He will take whatever pressure I am feeling and turn it into some beautiful and useful.  I have to even trust Him through the fire sometimes to harden me into something that can carry and share His living water.  I have to trust He will never let me fall.  And I have to trust that He listens to me.  I have to trust Him enough that I am willing to communicate when I am just too exhausted and my muscles hurt too much.  I have to believe that, just like my personal trainer, when I say it is more than I can do, He will modify something to make it something I can handle. 

God knows not only the state of my muscles and joints, but my mental, emotional, and spiritual health, too. 

It is such a difficult process, just like starting out in weight training, especially if you are like me and you jump right into to the difficult work without slowly building muscle in the little things first.  Part of why I quit personal training is that neither my trainer nor I are God.  She was very good, but she didn’t know every muscle twinge or knee pain or moment of mental fatigue that I was experiencing.  And I didn’t always have the knowledge or humility to tell her something was too hard for me.  The beauty with God is that He is perfect and He does know.  He knows not only the state of my muscles and joints, but my mental, emotional, and spiritual health, too.  He knows before I ever say, “Enough – too much – I can’t do it.”  He wants me to say it to Him not because He doesn’t already know, but because He wants me to know this is a partnership.  I do have a voice at His table.  I do have a part in the training process.  It is okay to admit to Him that I am tired and scared and feeling like a failure.  And then when He shows up and does something that lifts some of that burden from me, I get to know that He sees me and hears me and loves me. 

Take one thing and lean into God with it. 

Strength training hurts – no doubt about it.  It takes commitment and humility and willingness to keep showing up.  It doesn’t happen in a day or a week or even a month.  It is a gradual process.  Don’t do what I did.  Start small.  Take one thing and lean into God with it.  Tell Him what the pressure feels like.  Tell Him the places where it hurts.  Tell Him the point when your muscles begin to shake.  Make that process part of your daily prayer.  Take one thing that you are struggling with and have a good, healthy conversation with God about it.  Ask Him to show you what exercises He wants you to do – how long, how many times, to what depth.  And as the trust builds and your muscles strengthen, you will be better able to lean into Him in the unbelievably difficult moments – the ones you never knew that you had enough strength to endure.  He will support you and you will not fall.  And the strength you gain from it will become living water that you can pour out of your vessel into someone else.  “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10 

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.