Have you ever stopped to think how lucrative the exercise equipment business is? Buff guys on television "paid programming" make the latest, greatest, "get rock hard abs like mine" machine look so effortless. It's easy to morph into a fit body with sculpted muscles in just a few minutes a day - more like a quick look at the machine - if we can believe the advertising pitch! And it's crazy how many people do believe! We hope that if we have that miracle-working piece of equipment, we will somehow develop the self-discipline it will take to actually use it consistently so that we become fit, like the guy in the ad, without breaking a sweat, and in just a few short sessions.
So we fork over 4 easy payments of $99.99 plus shipping and handling. When it arrives, we unpack the box with determination, place the "thing" in front of the television, put on our newly purchased work-out gear (it is, after all, all about the look), and begin to exercise, only to discover that the guy on the ad lied. The machine is NOT easy and the effort required to make it work is HUGE! It doesn't take long for our resolve to dissolve and for the equipment to end up in the storage room along with all the other exercise stuff we've accumulated and rejected.
I wonder if we sometimes assume that becoming a mature Christian is supposed to come without extreme effort, personal sacrifice, and self-discipline. Once we accept Christ as our Savior, the training begins, and it doesn't end until we stand before the Lord, face to face. What is absolutely encouraging is that we have all we need (Phil. 4:19) to develop into "buff Christians." God has given us faith, and he's promised to provide the strength we need to grow in him and to become who he created us to be (Phil. 4:13). He's given us a complete training manual, the Bible, an example to follow, Jesus, and a personal trainer, the Holy Spirit.
Romans 5:1-5 is an interesting explanation of the kind of "circuit training" we can expect once we sign on for God's "Devoted Follower's Boot Camp." We discover that first we have entered into relationship with him through faith (Romans 5:1-2). It's this faith that allows us to believe and receive the grace of God and the gift of salvation. It's small faith (maybe the size of a mustard seed - Matthew 17:20), but like muscle and cardio-vascular capacity, it has growth potential!
Along with this faith, we have hope that, as a result of our salvation, we will know God's glory. Hope goes hand-in-hand with faith (Hebrews 11:1); therefore, hope has room to grow too. But just as muscles and lung capacity don't increase and strengthen by just wishing it so, faith and hope have to be pushed, stretched, and exercised to build endurance.
God's "training routine" requires that we know "tribulation" (Romans 5:3). But, it's the tribulation that develops patience in us. If we exercise our faith and hope during the tough times, if we stay focused and committed and draw our strength to endure from God, we come out stronger. That strength translates into a "chiseled, Christlike physique," which produces in us the will to keep on following after Christ, doing whatever it takes to become like him.
The "circuit training" God designs for us follows this pattern - faith to accept salvation, hope for a glorious future with him, tribulation to develop patience, patience to produce experience, and experience that results in more hope (Romans 5:3-5)!
Romans 8:25 says, "But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." We don't begin our training looking like the physically fit pitch-men in the advertisements, but we do hope that if we are patient (and patience doesn't always mean inactivity) and keep our eyes on the goal, we can develop the fitness God desires for us.
As we gain endurance, we have the experience to encourage us on to the next level. God wants us to graduate from his "boot camp" fully developed so that on the day that we stand before him, he can say, "Well done! You've run a good race" (I Corinthians 9:24; Hebrews 12:1)!
Lord, you know that we need to be pushed to develop into who you intend for us to be. You start our "training" gently, but you know for us to run the race to the finish, we will need more rigor! Thank you for providing all we need to be successful as we mature in our walk with you.
