Fit - By Exercise and Rest

Having received but a taste, a sure reminder of what our spiritual diet must be – no exceptions – as Jesus is our Food and Drink, we feed on Him by faith, with thanksgiving. Jesus feeds us and He is our living, guaranteed food. His food is complete, sufficient and forever available. He is our spiritually sustaining and satisfying food that can never ever run out, fade out, rot out or even run low. He is the sole diet for every believing, obeying and feeding soul.

Exercise

My cousin’s personal fitness trainer, prepared a very detailed and strategic set of exercises which had to be obeyed and followed as planned. For example, she had to be awake early on mornings, five days a week, to do specific outdoor morning exercises. In the evening, there were indoor exercises. What I mean is that she gave her life over to her fitness trainer, in that way, as she trusted him not to do things that would hurt her, but benefit her in the long run, even when they were hard and difficult exercises at times.

Jesus, our personal fitness trainer, who is fitting His own for heaven, has us go through daily faith exercises, some of which can be very strenuously demanding and requiring deep courage and persistence. He has these planned, as He is the One and only Wise and knows what each one of us needs. We must believe in Him and trust Him as knowing what He is doing in each one of us.

We’re now drawn to a Syrophoenician woman and shown, in new light, how Jesus put her through some very rough and stringent paces, as He exercised her faith to the max. He came to the point when He told this Gentile woman, who was daring enough to come to Him, a Jew, for healing for her child, that He could not take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs. This Gentile woman so grabbed Jesus by her strong, steady and sure faith-response that Jesus burst forth with this word. O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Mark 7: 29. NKJV. If we are to be fit for heaven, then we must be fit in faith, for without faith none of us can please our heavenly Father. Our faith is made stronger and greater, with each exercise of faith our Jesus prescribes for us. Remember, great faith not only pleases God, but it makes and keeps us fit for heaven.

Rest

Rest was as necessary and needed as food, when it came to my cousin’s fitness programme. Rest was required and the hours stipulated as well. She had to forgo late night hours, watching television or partying for example. She accepted the discipline because she was serious about being fit for carnival. A prize was at stake and her eyes never left that prize. It was her single motivation and joy.

Is heaven your single motivation and joy? Is being with Jesus, living with Him in heaven forever, your life’s prize? Are your eyes staked and fixed to the prize? Then, with heart, mind, strength and soul, we want to obey our personal fitness instructor in every area, including rest.

You and I have a Jesus who has many rest-exercises for His people. Here is one such exercise which many of us know, but not very many are able to show the results of such trusting. Jesus Himself has said to us, called us to Him, to give us the rest which our spirits need to be able to remain fit and ready in Him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11: 28 – 30 KJV. We all need our Lord’s rest. However, it will never be had, if we continue to take our worries, problems, cares and more, to Him and remain without His rest. We continue to believe that we can remain with worried, burdened, restless souls, doing whatever physical things we think best, and getting nowhere. We pray more, fast more, and try desperately to do more spiritual activities, such as reading the Bible more, praising more and such like. But to no avail, for we are not in our Lord’s rest. Unless we carry, unless we shoulder our Lord’s given yoke and burden, we will never know His rest.

Now here is the wisdom of our Lord. The only way we can take His yoke, is by giving over ours to Him. Yours for His, His for yours.

To be fit for heaven, we must be a people of rest.