We all seek to be faithful in some way in our lives. But growing in faith is a challenge. Just as a good physical workout helps your physical well-being, exercising your faith helps your spiritual well-being.
What Is Fit Faithful Living?
It is a mouthful just to say it “fit faithful living”. Is it just a cute phrase that helps illustrate and idea? To be honest I found it strange to say at first. But when I thought about it more and more I realized this one idea would be a great way to think about living faithfully.
Think about those you know who are physically fit. They didn’t get that way from thinking about it, or even from eating right. They got that way because they exercised regularly. Anyone who seeks to be physically fit has to continuously practice or exercise; they discipline their bodies. It is an every week thing and in some cases an everyday thing. A Routine.
So Fit Faithful Living is a lifestyle of discipline; a routine that we practice daily that helps us to be Spiritually fit.
How Does Exercising Our Faith Affect Our Spiritual Well-being?
We exercise our faith when we act on our belief. In the Bible there are many examples of acting on belief. Those who came to Jesus for healing acted on their belief that Jesus could in fact heal. They exercised their faith. The Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21 believed he could heal. The men that brought the paralytic man to Jesus in Mark 2 acted on their faith.
Every day that we act on our beliefs we exercise our faith. How do these actions affect our spiritual well-being.
I remember some twenty years ago I believed that God wanted me to share a song at church. Now I was at that time just beginning to learn how to play hymns on my guitar. I sang at church as part of the congregational singing, but I had never stood up and played and sang in front of anybody.
As I was practicing and learning a song I just felt led to share it as a special song in a service. I believed that God blesses us all with gifts and talents, and that we should use our gifts and talents to bless others. Believe me that first effort was scary. My hands shook so bad as I played in front of the congregation that I am surprised I was able to make it from chord to chord. I exercised my belief. If I quit at that point I probably could have lived the rest of my life without that experience.
But, because I felt encouraged by that action I tried it again with another song at another service. Each time I did this I performed better but also my faith in my belief that I could do this grew. My spiritual well-being grew as well.
Spiritual well-being is defined as “a sense of peace and contentment stemming from an individual’s relationship with the spiritual aspects of life” (https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/spiritual+well-being).
As we learn to exercise our faith our spiritual well-being grows and strengthens…
Good Spiritual Practices That Help Us To Be Faithful.
Spiritual practices are the exercise, the routine, that Christians have practiced for centuries that promote spiritual well-being that helped them to learn how to be more faithful, more fit in their faith.
In Matthew 6 Jesus teaches about three important disciplines that faithful believers have used since the Old Testament times. They are Giving, Praying, and Fasting. There is another important discipline common among believers; it is studying the word of God.
Giving – It was a common practice in Jesus’ day for faithful Jews to give; to help others who were less fortunate. God built this thought into their laws. When they harvested their fields they were told to leave the corners for the needy to help themselves. The law required 3 offerings (tithes) that each Israelite gave each year; one to support the Levites, one to support the temple, and one for the poor in the land.
How does giving help exercise our faith? Giving helps our sense of community, our attitude about others and it helps remind us of how blessed we are. There is a great article called “5 Ways Giving is God for You” from Greater Good Magazine that looks at how giving affects your life. They look at the idea from a science based viewpoint.
Check it out at https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/5_ways_giving_is_good_for_you/.
From a spiritual point of view our faith grows as we act on our faith. When we give, whether it is our money our time or our help to others we are in fact exercising our faith.
Praying – We may think of prayer as talking to God but it is more than that, prayer is communication with God. When we take the time to go to God in prayer we recognize that it is needful for our spiritual health. We are acting in faith, believing that God can help us for all our needs.
Too often prayer becomes a last ditch effort; something that we do because nothing else worked. But those who seek to grow in their faith recognized that prayer is a needed communication to keep us in touch with God. Prayer helps us to grow closer to God just as communication helps couples grow closer together.
Fasting – It is the practice of denying yourself of that which nourishes the body. Fasting was common in the Old Testament part of the act of mourning. When you are mourning you don’t want food, something has happened that is life altering. You want what you have lost.
So many times in the Old Testament people in the nation of Israel came to the point where they realized that they have lost contact with God. They fell away from their faith. In mourning their lost condition they couldn’t think of eating and drinking, they knew what they really needed was nourishment for their soul.
So why did fasting become a discipline that was practiced regularly for the religious in Israel? I remember growing up as a Catholic in the 60s and 70’s. It was expected and even commanded by the church that all good Catholics give up red meat every Friday. In the early days I just did as I was told. Eventually I started questioning my faith practices, particularly that of fasting every Friday.
Today it is still practiced as an act of penance. Giving up something that is good to earn God’s good will. I tend to believe that this thought of paying penance to God was behind the practice for the religious in Israel. But the real problem in Israel in New Testament times was that fasting was being done as an act to show one as being religious. It was all for show; they were being hypocritical.
Jesus spoke to that problem in Matthew 6:16-18. Jesus knew that people often felt the need for God’s help in certain circumstances. and when they chose to fast that it should not be done in a way that brings glory to themselves.
Today the practice of fasting regularly is a great way of disciplining oneself. Denying oneself of needed nourishment and instead looking to God; focusing on both needs and a desire to grow closer to God.
As was the problem in the New Testament we need to be careful not to make it something that is done for show.
Can you use fasting to exercise your faith? Yes. When you choose to fast, purposely deny yourself of needed nourishment, instead focusing on your need to look to God exclusively to help you to grow spiritually, then choosing to fast is a great way to become more fit faithfully. It will help you to grow in your faith, when you use it rightly.
Studying – How can we learn of our beliefs unless we learn to understand what we are to believe. It is very important for all believers to make it a practice to daily studying the word of God. Studying exercises our mind.
Studying helps us understand our faith. We will never become stronger in our faith until we learn to spend time with scripture. I don’t know who said this first but someone much smarter than me said, “The letters BIBLE stand for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. If you want to know how to grow in your faith the best exercise is spending time learning all you can from God’s word that is found in the Bible.
Each one of these spiritual disciplines can help in our efforts to become more fit in our abilities to live faithfully.
Exercise Your Faith There is No Better Way to Live Faithful.
It is my hope that something you read here will help you to grow spiritually and help you learn how to live faithfully.
Just as those seeking to be more physically fit discipline their bodies with regular exercise we can be more spiritually fit; more faithful by disciplining our minds, and our lifestyle as Christians. What I have tried to teach here is by no means the whole story. I encourage everyone to look deeper, to find sources to learn how to live more faithfully. We are blessed with the Word of God, help from other more mature believers and an unlimited source of learning through the internet.
If you have any questions or thoughts please leave a comment and I will respond as soon as possible.
