One of the muscle training principles says that lack of exercise atrophies our muscles, which means that it causes them to decrease in mass and consequently in strength. I haven’t lifted weight for a little over a week only, and when I went back to the gym I couldn’t hit my usual pair of 70 lbs dumbbells on the inclined bench. I had to limit myself to the 65 lb one for the first set of my burn-out (a series of sets that does from heavier to lighter weights). I couldn’t even do five good repetitions in my first set, while a week ago I would do 8 slow and controlled repetitions in full range of motion. In body building the motto is “No pain, no gain!” I believe this is similar to spiritual growth. When we stop exercising spiritual disciplines and routines such as prayer, Bible reading, quiet times of personal worship of God and things like that, we lose our spiritual momentum and our souls get dryer and dryer the longer we stay in that state of laziness. We lose the sense of the holiness of God and feel estranged from Him and want to run away from Him as far as we can just like Adam in the garden when he sinned. When we don’t commune with God we grow further away from the knowledge of Him. This is spiritual atrophy.
An ironical reality is that we cannot cope without God’s presence, as Christians. When we suffer spiritual atrophy we lose our joy and thankfulness toward God. For David, failure to go to God [after he sinned] meant bones atrophy due to constant groaning: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long” (Ps. 32:3, NIV). Paul, writing to the Thessalonians church, contends that God’s will for them in Christ is to be joyful always, pray continually [emphasis mine], and give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:16-18, NIV). And Paul also instructs Timothy, a young pastor, to train himself to be godly, and then he goes on to give the reason: “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:7b-8, NIV).
I wonder how little we realize what we are missing out on when we don’t exercise our spiritual walk. Otherwise, why would we spend hours a week at the gym while we pray for about 5 minutes a day? Why do we hang out for hours a day with our friends and significant others while we read the Bible less than twice a week (I don’t want to exaggerate or say that these hobbies are wrong)? No wonder that our spirituality is dead at times and we wonder if the God we preach to this world is even real among us. Our spirits have gotten somehow wearier and wearier and started to stagger along the path of a hectic life that is jammed with all kinds of activities and deafened by all kinds of noises.
The good news is that we don’t have to remain in this valley of spiritual atrophy. We can stop the decline the very moment we realize we are slacking. Let’s just keep first things first. Our spiritual routine remains the same as it was for Joshua, David, Paul and other biblical heroes: prayer, meditation on the word of God, and obedience to God’s will. One of my favorite prayers is to beg God to refresh me with a strong appetite for Himself and His Word. We can’t climb our spiritual mountains on our own. We need the Holy Spirit’s impetus. And isn’t that refreshing to know that God is always there for those who diligently seek Him? He is the rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him (Heb. 11:6b).
Filed under: Insights
Welson
thank you for this post. i wouldnt doubt it if the Holy Spirit prompted you to write it for my benefit only. I currently find myself in a state of spiritual atrophy and the mountaintop seems a million miles away, as does God’s presence. God seems to be silent when i need Him most, but then i remember-a teacher never talks during a test. One of the scariest aspects of God to me is He truly lets us take steps away from Him, but that is not to say He ever leaves us. I feel so far and yet i know as soon as i call to Him, He is near to me. Lord, help me to trash my idols of busyness and discontentment. Stir up my hunger for righteousness. I remember standing on a rooftop in haiti under the stars worshipping God with all abandon singing the words: “consuming fire\fan into flames a passion for your name\spirit of God wont you fall in this place\Lord have your way, Lord have your way…stir it up in our hearts, Lord, a passion for Your name!” Let it be so again in me, Lord.
You are welcome Mary!
I hear you. I wrote the draft for this post about a month ago and I hadn’t posted it yet, but all this time I was struggling with the same kind of difficutly. I know deep down in my spirit God wants to me quiet my mind down and stop to say to Him even one or two sentences in the midst of my daily busyness. And the great thing is that He always comes close to me whenever I set aside a little time to seek Him in prayer and the reading of His word. We all go through those ups and downs but at the end of each cycle we found ourselves more mature than before. Just look back a few months in your life and you probably will see what I mean.