Exercise Those Muscles

I don’t know about you, but, for years and years I’ve longed to be a ‘good Christian’. By that I mean that I want to pray more, hear God’s voice better, know my bible, be a nicer person, be braver at being an evangelist, and just be a good witness for Jesus. Mostly I feel that I haven’t made much progress at this.

You may remember that last time I wrote it was about how I’d had a fresh revelation of God’s amazing creation, because I’d broken my leg. Well the healing process is progressing; slowly, it seems to me. I was rather naïve really, as, when the orthopaedic consultant said I could start weight bearing, I thought I would throw out the crutches and just walk. It wasn’t like that, because it was three weeks before I could manage a few steps with just one crutch, rather than two.

He sent me to the physiotherapist, who told me to get into a swimming pool, (which means there’s not so much weight on my leg), and practise walking again in there. He also gave me other exercises to help strengthen the muscles, and get the joints and ligaments working again. I’ve been doing these exercises faithfully, and they help so much. Every day there’s a mile stone, of something I haven’t been able to do before. I’ve also found that it’s no good doing too much exercise, as that just makes my leg swell and ache. I have to rest it too.

In the midst of all this, I realised that this is what our Christian life is like. We want to be great at it, but we need to do the things Jesus has shown us: to delight ourselves in Him, to commit our way to Him, to trust Him and to wait for Him. Then He’ll give us the desire of our heart, a closer, more intimate, better walk with Him. But first we need to exercise our ‘muscles’ of delight in Him and commitment to Him, and our ‘joints and ligaments’ of trusting Him. We also have to rest in Him, and wait, just as I’ve had to with my leg.

Don’t worry that you’re not a ‘good’ Christian yet. Just keep doing your exercises, and don’t strive, but rest in Him. And He’ll do this, ‘He will give you your heart’s desires’, and ‘He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.’ You’ll become the great witness that you want to be.

Prayer: Help us, Lord Jesus, to be faithful to You in the things You’ve asked us to do, so we may grow in relationship with You, and honour You with our lives and our witness for You. Amen.