Spiritual Workout

 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
(Philippians 2:12)

Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life, and the life to come.
(1 Timothy 4:7-8)

It’s time for a real New Year’s resolution.

I hate to admit it, but I’m spiritually flabby. If my spirit could run, it probably wouldn’t make it the spiritual equivalent of ten yards without gasping for air, sweating profusely and collapsing into a heap.

Perhaps sensing my lack of spiritual fitness, several of my friends have given me a variety of Christian discipline-y books over the years. After reading and praying through approximately 84,327 of them, I have developed my own personal spiritual workout plan to help me run the Big Race without suffering a massive spiritual coronary.

Here’s the official 2012 version:

• FILL UP: with the Spirit
• PRAY: continually
• READ: the Bible
• LOVE: God + others
• FAST: from dumb stuff
• HANG: with other believers
• TELL: everyone the good news
• REST: with Jesus

I humbly suggest that you consider working out a similar plan, but never ever try it alone. We have our very own spiritual fitness consultant — the Holy Spirit — available to us 24/7/365.

We’ll discuss each element in the coming days. Until then:

WORK OUT WITH GOD

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