Exercise Your Faith Muscles

Exercise and I have a tenuous relationship at best. I want to work out, but several discs in my lower back limit what I can do. Now I could say that since I can’t do most types of exercise, there’s no point in trying. I am what I am, so I might as well resign myself to that. Right?

Wrong.

I am able to identify a few things I can do. I can’t run or jog, but I can walk. Even if it’s slow, it can be steady. I can’t lift weights, but I can do low-impact exercises in the pool, using the water as resistance instead of weights. No matter how small, I can do something!

Our spiritual life is like that, too. Jesus said if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move mountains. “Nothing will be impossible” to us. But what does this really mean? Does it mean if I want something bad enough, it will happen, just because I exercise even a little bit of faith?

One of the biggest mistakes we can make in interpreting the Bible is to take a verse out of context. When we do that, we can make a verse say almost anything we want it to say. A foundational rule in interpreting the Bible is to let Scripture interpret Scripture. When we’re trying to understand a particular verse, our best resource will be other verses on the same topic.

For example:

• Matthew 17:20 tells us, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
• Luke 1:37 adds, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
• 1 John 5:14-15 further explains, “If we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know he hears us in whatever we ask, we know we have the requests that we have asked of him.

The conclusion when we take these three verses together? Faith—even faith as small as a mustard seed—is powerful only because of the object of this faith, which for a Christian is always God Himself.

With God, nothing is impossible.

When we ask according to His will, nothing is impossible.

So if you and I want to exercise our faith muscles, we need to start with the Bible. God is the object of our faith and He reveals Himself in His Word.

He also reveals His will in His Word. Maybe not specifics such as whether our next car should be a Ford or a Maserati. But He does reveal biblical principles to guide our decisions, such as principles that speak to financial priorities and debt.

So if Christians want to exercise faith, we start by reading God’s Word.

Another step in exercising faith is to spend time in prayer with God. Because that’s how we become sensitive to His will & His leading. Prayer is less about changing God’s mind regarding a particular request and more about changing us as we surrender to Him and His will becomes ours.

Committing to regular times of Bible study and prayer requires time and effort. But you know what they say about exercise: “No pain, no gain.”

If we want to get in shape and stay there, physically and spiritually, we need to exercise those muscles!

Will you commit to exercising your faith muscles today?