An Exercise Program With Eternal Value

Well, we’re up at the crack of dawn, doing our exercises. We have trimmed the fat from our diet and we’re exercising at least three to five days a week in order to keep our cardiovascular system in peak condition.

But in the process, we have allowed our spiritual heart to become progressively weak. Preoccupied with the temporary, we have neglected the eternal (1 Timothy 4:7-8; Hebrews 5:14). We seldom read our Bible anymore. Our prayers have become lists of requests to God to make our life more comfortable and pain-free.

By the time we reach the church door after the sermon has concluded on the Lord‘s Day, we can’t even recall what the preacher said, because we’re thinking about some future worldly event or activity.

If the above thoughts describes us, perhaps it’s time to go to the Lord’s Clinic and get a “heart“ evaluation.

It begins where David (a man after God’s own heart) was in Psalm 139 — by acknowledging that God knows all about our heart (Psalm 139:1-6). It continues in Psalm 51:10, where David asks, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

And it results in the prayer of Psalm 19:14, “Let ….. the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”

Dear reader, taking care of our body makes a lot of sense, but it makes even more sense to gain spiritual fitness by "daily" walking with the Lord (Psalm 116:1-9; 1 John 1:7).

For that’s an exercise program with eternal value! (1 Timothy 4:6-8).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets