How Fit Are You?

I recently came across an article written by someone who had visited a popular hill town with plans to climb the popular hill. She ventured up with a guide and some other tourists. Unfortunately, she became tired along the way, so tired that she could not continue and had to be helped back to the ground. In her words, she discovered she was ‘not fit’. Looking at the hill and snapshots of people who had done the climb had encouraged her and created a desire to do the same. Upon trying, she discovered that she did not have the strength or stamina to make the climb and had to turn back.

How fit are you?

Nowadays, fitness is a buzz word. Almost everyone is jogging, walking, cycling, swimming and ‘gyming’ to improve their fitness levels. Smoothies have become popular. So is eating healthy. All of this is expected to improve the quality of health of participants and their level of fitness. Physical fitness. What about spiritual fitness?

Are you spiritually fit?

Consider what the Bible says in Proverbs 24 verse 10, where it says “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” Although it is not an ideal state to be in, weakness is possible. You can be weak, unfit and unable to surmount hills and mountains. However, once this is discovered, you can do something about it. Don’t get discouraged and remain as you are. You can improve your stamina and strength. All it takes is some work.

I am very familiar with the challenges of losing weight. Most women are. We are always working either to prevent weight gain or fighting off excess weight. It is arduous work, which involves both physical exertion and mental exercise. The same process applies to getting fit. You engage your mental faculties and your physical body to get the work done.

You only get fit by challenging your current state. You challenge your muscles to carry more and more weight. You challenge yourself to eat less of the wrong foods and eat more of the healthy and beneficial foods even when your cravings are for the sugary and fatty stuff. You push yourself to jog and gym even when your whole body is aching and you don’t want to move a muscle. After a few weeks and months, you will realise that things are improving. You can do what you couldn’t before. You are fitter than before.

I wish that the story would end there, but it doesn’t. Relax a bit and miss two weeks of working out and you’re back where you started or even worse than before. For one, your body will punish you for stopping and you will ache more than ever before.

Apply this to your spiritual walk and you discover that consistent praying, Bible-reading and seeking God is not easy. Like exercise, you need to do it even when you don’t feel like. You need to ignore the sleep, the inconvenience and the ‘pain’ and just keep going on. Eventually at some point, you will find that it is getting better. It has moved from duty to desire and you are now enjoying it. Keep on keeping on, because the moment you stop, it takes you back and you don’t want to be where you are vulnerably weak again.

So, what am I saying?

“For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8 NKJV

There is some profit in bodily exercise,. Go ahead and get some. Do it well. Do it consistently. Spiritual exercise profits a lot, not just in this life but also in the life to come. Get a lot of it. Do it well. Do it consistently.

Get fit.

Get physically fit. It would save you from unnecessary illness. It would make you able to enjoy life better. And you look better in clothes too!

Get spiritually fit. The benefits are innumerable, for yourself and your family. And it continues into the after life.

Your best time to start was years ago. Your next best time is now.

Start now!