This message has been on my heart for some time now. In studying this topic I have found many parallels between physical exercise and growing as a Christian. From personal experience I have found that physical strength such as stamina and muscle strength does not remain if you stop exercising. It doesn’t matter how much you develop this strength, if you don’t maintain it through regular and consistent exercise. If you do not you quickly begin to lose the strength that you had previously acquired. The same thing is true of our spiritual strength to a greater degree if we are not faithful to maintain a regular and consistent routine of prayer, study of the Word, church attendance, memorising scripture and renewal of the mind we lose the strength that we acquired. I have found that most Christians live with a false sense of security concerning the strength they think they have based on where they were yesterday, last month or last year. One thing that we must understand is that we have to be consistent and diligent with our growth as a Christian.

Just like the person who goes to the gym several times a week to maintain their fitness level, as a Christian you cannot ‘step off’ and miss a day from studying the Word, prayer, renewing your mind or attending church. You break that routine and you will lose your momentum and it is so hard to pick up and get started again once that discipline is broken. You can test how strong or weak you are as a Christian by how you respond to problems, offences, trials, temptations etc.

Your response will determine or show you your strength and your weakness. For example if you are easily offended then it shows that your strength is weak in the area of love because the scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that love takes no account of the wrong done to it; so you need to work on that area of your life until you become strong enough to forgive and let people go who have wronged you. If you keep talking about what they have done to you, it means you haven’t forgiven and you’re weak and undeveloped in the area of love. Another area you can see your strength or weakness is if you are always struggling with depression, discouragement, negative or suicidal thoughts. You need to take the Word of God on a daily basis and strengthen your mind until you develop the mind of Christ.

Learn to cast down imaginations and everything that tries to enter your mind that is contrary to the Word of God and bring every thought captive to the obedience of God’s Word (2 Cor. 10:5-6). One of the reasons a person struggles with negative thoughts and discouragement is because they have a weak mind that needs to be strengthened with daily exercise of the Word through reading and memorising scriptures.

WE OFTEN MEASURE CHRISTIANS BY...
Church attendance – Attending church on a regular basis does not amount to someone being a strong Christian. Participating in church activities such as Bible, or evangelism classes, visitation programs or memorising and quoting scriptures can also be thought of as being synonymous with a strong Christian. However the problem with this measure is that It tends to measure the outside of man. From personal experience I have learnt that people can do all these things, and still be spiritually weak and immature on the inside. There are many kinds of strengths. But the true Christian strength is not of the body. True Christian strength is of the spirit and it is measured in faithfulness, trust, and perseverance and the good news is that God wants you to be strong in Him because you are in a spiritual battle against the forces of darkness. There are many things to fight such as temptation, lust, disappointment, discouragement, offence, failure of seeing your plans and hopes fulfilled, sexual temptation, unforgiveness, hatred of others, covetousness, addictions: alcohol, drugs, pornography, even pride. God wants you to be strong enough to overcome and walk free from all these things.

Ephesians 6:10-18 - (NIV) “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

When we fail to strengthen ourselves compromise will begin to set in. Let’s take a brief look at the example of these three men:

Solomon: the wisest of all men, he had tremendous wisdom, wealth and power but despite all of that he had a weakness. His weakness was compromise. By marrying many foreign women he fell into idolatry and served false gods.

Samson: the strongest of all men, he killed 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey and he toppled a temple with his bare hands. Yet despite all of that he was unable to resist the persistence of a woman by the name of Delilah who hounded him until he told her the secret of his strength, and through her betrayal he ultimately fell.

David: A gifted psalmist who loved the Lord. Despite the beautiful Psalms he wrote and the tremendous victories he had through God he fell into the temptation of lust, then adultery, then murder. As strong as these men were they all fell because they had areas where they were weak and the enemy knew their weaknesses; exploited them and used it against them. God wants you to be strong in Him because the spiritual battle can only be won, first of all, by putting on His armour and secondly by building yourself up in Him daily.

Here are 5 steps to help you develop your strength:

1. Be disciplined - 1 Corinthians 9:27 says “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection...”. The biggest struggle that most people have is lack of discipline and consistency – in fact it’s a problem with our generation today, that’s why gyms will have you pay membership because they know how inconsistent people are when it comes to discipline. Church reminds me very much of the gym; you have those that enrol and never get past the restaurant, then there are those that start to use the machines but don’t want to over exert themselves or be overly challenged. These are the ones that come to church but don’t like to be challenged or put under any kind of pressure to change. These people will look for a church where the messages preached are void of any conviction or challenge to change. Then there are those who show up a few times but due to a lack of surrender (inconsistency) eventually stop coming. We should all desire to become like those who are committed and consistent and seek out opportunities to build up their spiritual strength and stamina, for e.g. the Women of Excellence or Men of Destiny retreats.
2. You must completely rely on God, not on yourself – if you rely on yourself you will find yourself in trouble. Proverbs 3:5 says that we are to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not to our own understanding. When we live independent of God we have a tendency of getting ourselves in trouble.
3. Pray at all times in the Spirit. God wants you to be strong in Him because the spiritual battle is won through prayer. This means that we are to continue in prayer even though we may not see the answer. Jude 1:20 says “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” There is so much to pray about that we can never say we don’t know what to pray for. Pray for your brothers and sisters in church. Pray for those in leadership in your church and the nation. Pray for your pastors. Pray daily in the Holy Spirit because in doing so we pray the perfect will of God.
4. In order for you to be strong, you must have faith, you must put on faith – you must develop your faith muscles on purpose. Learn to trust God for the smallest of things. Believe His Word, trust His Word for He and His Word are one and they never lie. I am not talking about faith for material possessions; I am talking about faith that chooses to trust God every day for all things. Acts 3:16 says “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.” Without faith it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11: 6) so faith is an integral part of your strength as a believer. The scripture says in Proverbs 24:10 that if you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small (weak). Purpose to develop big faith muscles by not casting away your confidence in God when you are faced with problems.
5. Renew your mind daily – A lot of believers don’t understand who they are in Christ and because of this they live a weak and defeated life. The problem area that most people struggle with is not in their spirit; it is in their mind and body. It is every believer’s responsibility to take God’s Word and renew his mind; then he can use that Word to control his body. Ephesians 4:22-24: (...put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 2and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Paul was explaining to the Ephesians that they had been delivered from their sinful flesh and had been re-created in righteousness. However, it was their responsibility, as an act of their will, to put on the new man in Christ and stop doing the works of the flesh. The same principle applies to you and me as believers today. We have been re-created by God in the spirit, but we must take the Word of God and use it to renew our minds and control our flesh. The basics of renewing your mind is to simply do what THE WORD SAYS. One of the biggest problems of our generation is that we don’t do what we are taught or know to do. So many of the saints today choose to act contrary to what is taught in the Word or in their church. At V2V Church we teach the uncompromised Word of God in its entirety, if you are not living by that uncompromised Word then it’s because you have chosen to forsake the teaching you hear and live by the dictates of your flesh and your old sinful nature.

Galatians 5:22-23 tells us about the fruit of the Spirit because a person who is truly strong is governed, submitted to and led by the Spirit of God. Colossians 3:12-17 reminds us of the kind of Christ like characteristics we should develop first and foremost is our “inner man”.

Let us honestly judge ourselves and consider where we fall short, let us stop “putting on a front”, pretending to be something we are not - the Lord sees us as we really are. Let’s be sure that the “measure” by which we examine ourselves is the same one used by the Lord in 1 Samuel 16:7!”...For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Pastor Erica Goodman