“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
Zig Ziglar, a great motivational speaker and Christian man once said “if you go to a fat doctor who tells you to lose wait, find a new doctor.” This statement always resonated with me because credibility matters.
Do people see Christ in you? Do they experience Christ through you? Does your approach to life represent Christ? These are questions that I have to ask myself daily and too often the answers are disappointing. Equally often, the always loving Heavenly Father reminds me that he holds me. He encourages me. He knows the deepest depths of my heart. He says, “Let’s go again. You are gaining in your wisdom and understanding. Your spiritual fitness is honing you into the son that is better prepared for the race that I have created you to run.” That is enough.
What’s weighing on you? God the Father already knows and desires to release you from this?
What’s holding you back from the dreams in your mind? God the Father placed those dreams in you and has equipped you to achieve those dreams?
What occupies your mind? God the Father desires to free you from everything that creates a barrier between you and Him?
The hardest thing about any fitness program is getting started. God the Father desires to see you living the life of freedom and spiritual fitness that repels doubt with assurance. That creates humility and contentment where comparison and despair once resided. The life that God has uniquely prepared for you stands in front of you. Waiting for you to walk into it. Take another step today. Open your Bible today. Pray today. Trust today. Then repeat tomorrow. Retraining your mind is to the heart what exercise is to your health. Give yourself the gift of intimate relationship with the Father through Bible study and prayer. The results are incredible.
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:12-17 ESV