Building Spiritual Muscle

by Cynthia Cummings Walker

One day my young son came home from school and went straight to the basement instead of going into the kitchen for an after-school snack. I wondered what he was going downstairs to do since that wasn’t something he normally did.    

When I descended the stairs, I saw my son lifting weights.  I asked him what prompted him to start working out with weights.  My son said that a boy in school told him that he was going to beat him up the next day so my son was getting prepared for a fight. I told my son that I understood what he was trying to do.  However, muscles are not built overnight.

I took the time to pray with my child right then.  We prayed that the Lord would change the bully’s mind about whatever made him want to intimidate or assault my child. We prayed for all bullies who would seek to hurt other children emotionally or physically. When my son came home from school the next day, he was happy to report that the bully did not confront him. Prayer answered.  

I typically used normal, everyday circumstances to teach my sons biblical truth. So, lifting weights the night before a potential fight was a perfect illustration for a spiritual lesson. There is no overnight fitness miracle, physically or spiritually.

Life for everyone has all kinds of challenges and difficulties. We never know what a day will bring.  Accidents, sickness, death, health catastrophes, and more.  A day can start off perfectly normal, then within an hour or so, disaster strikes. Christians should be spiritually prepared by exercising their spiritual muscles so they will have strength for the battle.

The way to build spiritual muscle, or strength is by Christians reading, meditating, believing, and obeying God’s Word on a daily basis.  Obedience to what God says is the way to success and victory.   

Joshua 1:8 (NIV) “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.”  

None of this happens overnight. Gradually, these exercises build faith and spiritual strength.  Mature Christians can see life’s trials and tribulations the way that God sees them. From a human perspective, pain is bad and undesirable.  From a spiritual perspective, the Lord uses suffering to mature the Christian in every area of their life.  

James 1:2–5 (NIV) “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything”.

1 Peter 5:10 (NASB) “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”

Hebrews 5:8–9 (NASB) “Although He (Jesus) was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,”.  

In the book of Job 1:13-19 There is the story of Job, a righteous man, who was pleasing in God’s sight. Job was extremely wealthy and blessed in every area of his life. Through a series of events, in one day, Job lost every earthly possession, including his 10 children dying in a windstorm.

How did Job respond to this tragic and devastating news?  He immediately worshipped God. “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.  He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.” Job 1:20-22 (NASB)

Job living a life of obedience and devotion to the Lord had built up so much spiritual muscle that he could look beyond his circumstances, to Almighty God who is worthy of praise regardless of the situation.   His faith in God unwavering. 

There was a period of extreme suffering in my life when I initially thought I was strong. Proverbs 24:10 (NKJV) “If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small.”    I soon realized I was weak. 

I knew the Bible like the back of my hand, yet when the tsunami of pain hit, it was as though I didn’t know the Lord at all.  I couldn’t see beyond my circumstances. I didn’t ask God for wisdom on how to get through it.  I just wanted to know why. I wanted it to be over.

Through a series of events the Lord showed me that I had a lot of head knowledge, yet when a time of testing came, I failed. I knew the Word yet relied more on the knowledge of the scriptures than the One who spoke the Word. Lesson learned.

As I matured spiritually, focusing on my personal, intimate relationship with the Lord rather than simply knowledge of Him, my life was transformed. Because my spiritual muscles were being exercised daily, I was able to praise God immediately when faced with a serious health crisis. 

One day I was feeling intense pain and had to go to the hospital. Some tests were run.  A physician gave me the results.  I had cancer.  A person never knows how they will react to news like this until it happens. 

The first thing that came to my mind when those words left his lips was: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21 (NASB)  I was in a Win-Win situation.

If I lived I would continue to serve the Lord with my whole heart.  If I died, I would go to be with Him.  My immediate response showed me how much I had grown  spiritually. I was so grateful that my trust in the Lord had magnified.  All through my surgery and months of chemotherapy I was at peace, acknowledging that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord!

When a Christian faces a devastating situation in life, being spiritually prepared will bring optimum results through spiritual strength and power.   Many people exercise daily for good health and vitality.  Spiritual exercise benefits not only the Christian.  The people Believers pray for, witness to, comfort and encourage are beneficiaries of a Christian whose life glorifies God in good times, and bad.

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