Based on “Under HIS Influence – Changed Lives” by Pastor Mark Balmer; 9/26-27/09,
Message #MB390; Daily Devotional #5 - “Spiritual Exercise Program”
Preparing the Soil (Introduction): You start an exercise program and change your eating habits and you see results from your changes. You are excited and people can see the difference. You tell them what you are doing to bring about these changes in your life. Then as time goes on, other things start interrupting your exercise and diet changes and you find yourself sinking back into your old ways. I believe we do this with God also. We put our faith in Jesus and start following Him. We see results from our changes and so do others, but as time goes on we allow interruptions in our life to take our focus away from our new way of life. The power within us becomes depleted as we have given in to other “masters”.
Planting and Watering the Seed (Growth): How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? (Galatians 3:3, NLT) We need a constant refilling of the Holy Spirit to empower us – we cannot have an effective, changed life without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Just like with an exercise program, we have to be diligent in order to see changes. We won’t lose weight by sitting on the couch watching TV and eating ice cream. If there are no changes in our eating or exercise, we will not see any changes in our physical bodies. Apply this to our spiritual life - to see results you must make changes. We have to choose our “Master”. A personal relationship with Jesus requires an effort on our part. Spending time with Him every day in prayer and in His Word are part of our spiritual exercise program. Thankfully, unlike our own human physical exercise program, we have supernatural power within us to continue on even when life throws us interruptions. This requires us to take action to ask to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit so we don’t have to rely on our own power to see results. We fail miserably to live up to God’s standards in our own human effort. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (Romans 3:23, NLT)
Harvesting the Crop (Action/Response): Do you have a spiritual exercise plan? Have you been distracted by everyday interruptions so that you are no longer seeing effective results? No one is commenting on the changes in your life because they just aren’t evident anymore, like when you were first empowered by the Spirit. Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. (Romans 6:15-16, NLT). What is taking you away from having an effective spiritual exercise program? Are you putting in the effort or are still sitting on the couch? If we are not obedient to God’s will for our life we will find ourselves trying to do life in our own human effort and wondering why we are frustrated and not seeing results. But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. (Romans 7:6, NLT) We need a spiritual exercise plan and we need to make it our priority everyday so the changes in our habits become evident. If there is no evident change in your life, remind yourself that the Holy Spirit is residing within you waiting for you to get serious and tap into Him.
Cultivating (Additional Reading): Romans 8:1-11
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