Working out …

Mary not only goes to the gym three times a week, she pays for a Personal Trainer to train her.

Mary doesn’t follow the nutritional guidance provided to her, at least not adequately.

Mary also doesn’t quite follow all of the guidance provided to her about the cardio exercise she needs to do to meet her stated fitness goals.

Mary also doesn’t apply herself very well to her muscular conditioning workouts, and it appears her trainer may have given up on correcting her form because he largely stands by and lets her “do her thing.”

But she shows up at the gym and works out three times each week … and has done so for a few years now.

Without any physical change. No noticeable improvement.

That’s because Mary doesn’t go to the gym to get in shape. She’s still deconditioned, borderline obese, and continues to struggle with fatigue from an underdeveloped cardiovascular system. But it makes her “feel good” to go to the gym. At least she can say she does what she is supposed to do to be fit … partially anyway, but that fact can be left out when talking to friends. And besides, there are a lot of other gym members just like Mary … those who workout for years, without physical improvement. It’s become more of a social setting where long-time members go to interact while pushing around some weights.

Mary is like many who fill the seats in any given church sanctuary. We go, we do … but do we grow, and then do?

Matthew 7:21-23 says, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.'”

Being a child of God is not about just showing up on Sunday. It’s about “working out our salvation” every day, building the muscles of our faith and seeing real progress as our faith develops and we change. Paul mentioned this change in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord — who is the Spirit — makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”

Paul further emphasized this issue of growth in Ephesians 4:11-15, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.”

God doesn’t want us showing up at church week after week, month after month, year after year the same as we started! We should be growing up in Christ, becoming more and more like Him.

How are you doing with your “spiritual workouts”? How’s the development coming?

Scotty