If you’ve ever had a personal trainer you know that you’ve got to pay attention. A trainers jobs is to help you have proper form, avoid injuries and achieve the outcomes you’ve both agreed to reach. Doing faith and fitness together has to be more than just you being encouraged, inspired and being in the presence of God or others.
Attentiveness is active listening, maintaining focus and committing to achieve the outcomes you and God have for you and others. Faith and fitness exercises spiritual muscles so that you and others can resist temptations, persist through challenges, be patient, extend grace, practice compassion.
It’s about taking cues from God to become through him a better you. It’s about being obedient to God’s Spirit. It is serving God by serving others, bringing God’s goodness in the moment and having a God-fueled passion to shape the culture for Christ.
Those who pay attention to their personal trainer can expect to gain muscular strength. Similarly, those who pay attention to God can anticipate developing a Muscular Christianity. Paying attention to God is about having a transformed mindset – a spirit that is freed from what the world says you typically should do. When that happens God will do more through you.
HEAR & FOLLOW - LISTEN & OBEY
God speaks to you through His Word, the witness and the weight.
What are the distractions and noise in your life?
To obey is better than sacrifice. God delights in a listening ear and obedient heart. The moment that we have the slightest sense that God might be talking to us we should get quiet and inwardly incline our hearts to listen. Be totally yielded to God.
What does it mean to you to pay attention in the moment?
WORD: A lot of stuff in our life we don't need to "pray about it" we just need to read the Bible, God's Word, and obey it. That 'Just Do It' mentality. In the gym when we don't listen to the instruction of our trainer or cheat on proper form we put ourself at risk of injury. The WORD is the literal, hard core, no-compromise pay attention to the breath of God.
Describe a time you chose to not pay attention to guidance or wisdom? What happened?
WITNESS: Some call it a "gut instinct". When someone says, "I just knew I should have..." we call that a premonition. When someone is a Christian they might say, "I felt God told me to..." The WITNESS requires your inner listening along with obedience if you want to more deeply and personally pay attention to God. It's YOUR unique opportunity.
How do you wrestle with the witness of God's Spirit? What did you discover when you yielded or eagerly responded to that witness?
WEIGHT: Fitness training is a good physical illustration of a spiritual truth: the weight we use for physical exercise is similar to the spiritual burden God puts on us. It'll weigh heavy on you. You'll feel it.
When you feel the weight how do you lift It? How do you practice spiritual perseverance?
