No Shortcuts to Proper Training, Physically or Spiritually

You don’t have to be an avid sports fan to appreciate the hard work and dedication required to become an elite athlete. Whether we’re watching football, baseball, basketball, soccer, one of the Olympic events or some other sport, we see competitors displaying feats of skill and physical prowess most of us could never imagine attempting, let alone accomplishing.

 

Right now, another football season is winding down, with only the NFL playoffs and college football championship game remaining. But each year it seems the players’ athleticism rises to another level.

 

How does this happen? Innate talent and physical giftedness are part of it, no doubt. As they say about basketball players, you can’t teach height. Being able to leap more than three feet in the air isn’t something they can teach in gym class. And you’ve either got “fast-twitch” muscles or you don’t. 

 

But natural ability can take a person only so far. Many high school jocks never succeed at the collegiate level, and only an infinitesimal percentage of college stars ever advance to the professional level, much less become superstars.

 

Many things factor into the making of stellar athletes, but one they all share is massive amounts of physical training, something we couch-potato fans never see and rarely appreciate. All we see is how they play on game day, not the behind-the-scenes workouts, practices, conditioning, weight training and other elements designed to maximize their performance. There’s no substitute for this – and no shortcuts.

 

Have you ever considered that this is true for spiritual growth and maturity as well? Think of your favorite radio Bible teacher, conference speaker or Christian author. Even if they’ve just recently gained wide public recognition, they didn’t become overnight spiritual successes.

 

Think of Abraham, who received God’s promise that he would become “the father of many nations” (Genesis 17:4-5), even though his son Isaac wasn’t born until he was 100 years old. Or Moses, who after killing an Egyptian in defense of a fellow Hebrew, fled to Midian where he lived for 40 years before the Lord called him to be His instrument in freeing the Israelites from more than four centuries of slavery.

 

The apostle Paul, following his life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ while traveling with the intent to persecute more Christians, spent about 12 years being ‘seasoned’ in Damascus before Barnabas stood up for him and introduced him to Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem.

 

In each instance, God used extended period of waiting to prepare those men for instrumental roles of leadership. It might not have seemed like it at the time, but they were being trained for what the Lord wanted them to do. This is one reason Paul would later write to his protégé Timothy, “…Train yourself to be godly. 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 Timothy 4:7-8).

 

Some of us are diligent in pursuing physical training, whether going to the Y or gym regularly or enduring long periods of running to prepare for events like marathons or triathlons. That, as Paul said, “is of some value,” but are we as consistent and determined in the pursuit of godliness through spiritual training?

 

What does this spiritual training look like? It can take many forms, and it varies from one person to the next. But we can’t draw closer to the Lord unless we spend time with Him in the Scriptures, in prayer, and in the company of fellow followers of Jesus.

 

In another of his letters to mentor young Timothy, Paul wrote, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Understanding the Scriptures and knowing how to apply them doesn’t come by osmosis. We need to read, study, meditate, memorize and strive to put what we learn into practice.

 

Many times in the Bible we see the fathers of the faith devoting much time to prayer. Jesus Himself regularly set aside time for praying and communing with God the Father, admittedly one of the sometimes hard to understand aspects of the Trinity. But if Jesus found prayer essential, how can we think otherwise? This is why we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray continually” or “pray without ceasing.” Prayer should be as foundational for our spiritual well-being as breathing is to our physical welfare.

 

And we can’t succeed in the pursuit of godliness on our own. The Lone Ranger might have been a TV icon of the 1950s, but trying to thrive as a ‘lone ranger’ Christian is a sure path to failure. This is why the writer of Hebrews admonished, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Jesus Christ is going to return. The Bible promises this, and God has never failed in His promises. It may be soon, or maybe not. Either way, we must resolve to devote ourselves to spiritual training, just as an athlete must be dedicated to rigorous physical training so he or she can excel on the field or arena of competition. Only in that way can we be confident to excel as “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). 

Ya Gotta Have a Plan!

As someone wise first observed, the road to failure – and lots of other bad places – is paved with good intentions. We have a worthwhile idea, fully intend to get around to it someday, but when “someday” arrives, we haven’t done anything.

The problem is, intentions without well-conceived plans – plans subsequently executed – are like clouds that one moment look white and fluffy, then dissipate moments later. Intentions are good. They serve as seeds for future endeavors, whether it’s learning a foreign language, acquiring skills to find a better job, deciding to take up a musical instrument, losing weight, improving a relationship, or growing closer to God.

Plans, without action, are
little more than good intentions.

But intentions are like the starting line of a race. They won’t get you to the finish line until they are activated with a specific plan in mind. Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright are known as “the fathers of powered flight,” but it’s likely other people had similar ideas. They might even have intended to invent something to bring their ideas into reality. But the Wright brothers were the ones that did it, devising very specific plans and performing the hard work to carry out the plans.

The world’s greatest musicians, business leaders, surgeons, statesmen, writers, designers all started with a dream. But it didn’t stop there. The idea conceived was birthed through careful, intentional planning that spurred them on to action.

When you woke up this morning, did you have in mind something you intended to do? Have you done it yet? Have you taken even the first step toward getting it done? If not – why not?

There are many principles and philosophies that guide successful enterprises, but often they can be reduced to three simple questions: Where are we going? How are we going to get there? How will we know when we’ve arrived?

In other words, goals and objectives are of little value without plans in place for pursuing and achieving them. This is true not only for the business and professional world, but also for every other facet of living.

Let’s say you’re concerned about your physical conditioning and want to make improvements. Buying exercise videos or joining a fitness club might fortify your intentions, but unless you start putting those to use on a consistent basis – not once every week or three – your intentions will remain nothing more than wishful thinking. The attitude, “I love exercise. I can watch other people doing it for hours,” won’t tone your muscles or shed unwanted pounds.

What about something even more important, like spiritual growth? After all, the Bible observes, “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 Timothy 4:8). Again, many of us have wonderful intentions. We’d like to become wise, godly individuals, people that others would recognize as having a close walk with God. But intentions alone won’t get us there.

So we need a plan. And it’s not something another person can devise for us. We’re all uniquely, “fearfully and wonderfully made,” as Psalm 139:14 reminds us. God has a special, distinct plan for each of us, so what works for me might not work as well for you.

But in every case it should start with striving to know the Lord, and there’s no better way of doing that than spending time in His Word, where He reveals Himself as well as His commandments, laws and principles for everyday life.

After Joshua succeeded Moses in leading the Israelites, God told him, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).

Psalm 119, all 176 verses of it (by far the longest chapter in the Bible), repeatedly underscores the importance and value of knowing and following the teachings of Scripture. The psalmist states it plainly in writing about God, ”How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your word…. I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:9,11).

However, there’s more to it than simply knowing what the Bible says. It also involves using it to formulate a plan for putting intentions into action. As the apostle Paul exhorted followers of Jesus in the city of Philippi, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9).

And he wrote to his young protégé, Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

So if our desire is to know God and live fruitfully for Him, we need to move those intentions into a solid, workable plan, built on the foundation of His Word. Then, drawing from the wisdom and insight He gives us, we need to find answers to the three simple questions: When am I going? How am I going to get there? And how will I know when I’ve arrived?

Devise a plan that works – and work your plan.