New Year’s Workout

“For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8 (NASB)

Many of us have found ourselves guilty of overindulgence when it comes to holiday treats and goodies. The season intrinsically lends itself to tremendous fare of all sorts.

Well, with the gluttonous tendencies of the holidays, come the obvious consequences such as clothes that fit a bit tighter, feeling a bit sluggish, lack of energy, etc…

Millions of people will be making New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, exercise more, etc… I would like to suggest that we, as Christians, consider making some serious resolutions regarding our spiritual discipline. The above verse lays it out for us nicely. The truth is that this physical body is quite temporal and only lasts for several decades. Our spiritual man is permanent and lasts forever. In our culture, we have seen an alarming trend to prioritize our outer man over our inner man. Looks, optimal health, and self-confidence have trumped the traits that REALLY matter. By really matter, I mean, matter forever! Oz Guinness wrote a book several years ago that sums up the whole issue with just its title ~ “Fit Bodies, Fat Minds.”

We tend to marginalize the spiritual disciplines in the church, these days. Last year, one of America’s most famous pastors, Bill Hybels was forced to make an alarming statement regarding the seeker sensitive worship service and ministry model. He came out publicly to pronounce that it does not work. It does not produce well balanced growing disciples. He said that what they should have been doing all along was encouraging people to read their Bibles, pray, fellowship together, serve, etc… These core disciplines are tried and true methods for the church because their source is actually the NT! These are God’s way to grow.

The great commission in Matthew 28 commands us to “make disciples.” With this imperative driving our ministry both corporately and individually, we need to set some goals that aid us in growth as disciples.

The concept of being strengthened and stretched in the spiritual disciplines such as

Bible reading, Bible memorization, prayer, service, encouragement, doctrinal study, intentional evangelism, etc… is not a priority that can be taken lightly, or even just lighter than it should be taken. We NEED these things in our lives to be ever increasing and ever strengthened!

What will we do with this truth? What changes will 2009 bring in our spiritual discipline?

What resolutions or life-style adaptations will we make? Remember, the things that really matter are the things that really last!