God is our Personal Trainer.

Faith is a muscle.

By that, I mean we can’t just snap our fingers and suddenly have faith strong enough to make it through difficult circumstances. We need to utilize day-to-day normal life happenings to practice walking by faith so we are ready when absolutely everything we have will be demanded of us in order to make it through something severe.

So how does God grow our faith?

He builds a custom gym somewhere on the globe that has been selected just for us. My gym is located at my home address, in my neighborhood, nestled in my city, and my gym has other locations where I work and attend church.

Where is your gym located?

Wearing proper gear positively influences our workouts. I aim to wear the armor God created, as listed in Ephesians 6:14-17: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the gospel of peace, a helmet of salvation, a shield of faith, and a sword (the word of God). It’s a fight out there every day, and the fight isn’t with people (flesh and blood), but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:11-13).

What is your workout gear?

Once we enter the gym God built for each of us, God asks us to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions” (Ephesians 5:18), then it’s time to decide our workout routine.

Cardio: Where are we headed, and what is our finish line? “I run with endurance the race set before me, fixing my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,” (Hebrews 12:1,2) and “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)

Weights: What weighs us down? What do we bear that God asks us to not only walk through, but walk through it well? Whatever is on our list, the items have been sifted through the Lord’s fingers to produce only good in our lives, if we let them, by responding well. Our set of problems have been customized just for us. My “barbells” include the weight of financial problems, relationship difficulties, job challenges, family dynamics and health concerns. I do the circuit God plans for me. He changes it daily, so I have to stay close to His instruction and listen.

What is your faith workout?

There are a few people who like to workout, but most of us are tempted to either procrastinate or do less than we had planned, but our faith workouts need to be taken seriously! God is the only One who knows our future, so He is the only one qualified to create the specific faith workout we need to face the future only He can see.

Do exercise faith daily?

I saw an Instagram quote that made me angry. It reflects a perspective expressed frequently these days: It’s so empowering to say, “This isn’t serving me” and walk away in peace.

Lots of relationships and circumstances don’t look like they serve us well on paper, but they serve God well. He often asks us to do difficult things and serve difficult people in order to build the faith muscle needed for our future. He often asks us to stay in hard things, not only to build our faith, but also to give the world an opportunity to see God’s love and develop our ability to reflect Christ’s character (James 1:2-4).

Beth Moore tweeted on September 27, 2018: We want to be overcomers with nothing to overcome. Courageous with nothing to fear. Loving with no catalyst to hate. Servants with no jerks to serve. Givers without our wallets involved. Carriers of causes instead of crosses. And Jesus is way too good to let us get away with it.

Do you work hard, or cut corners?

Building faith is hard work, but God has built a gym for each of us, hand selected our workout clothes, and created a custom workout just for us.

Let’s show up in our gym every day and give God’s workouts our best effort.

Picture Explanation: Boys went on fall break and daughter got a new car!

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