No longer drudgery!

My lovely wife has recently been "encouraging" me to start an exercise program. I used to dread the thought but slowly am realizing the value. Thanks, Dear! Tonight as I was mopping up the sweat, I was thinking about exercise and was a reminded of a fewthought-provoking quotes about exercise that I have read recently.

If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all.
Joey Adams

I actually read this in a daily sales record-keeping book at Nordstrom a couple of months ago. I laughed at first, then it dawned on me that it accurately described me. That was who I had become. Not such and accurate description anymore. Of course, I'm the type to start something and quit, but this time I have some one checking up on me, "bugging" me to keep it up. I need, and for once, appreciate that very much. (Thanks again, Dear!) My goal is to lose 13% of my current body weight by Christmas. A big goal. But one worth striving for.

Fitness - if it came in a bottle, everybody would have a great body.
Cher

If only it were that easy. Like my brother Phil and I were discussing earlier, if good looks and a polite smile could get us what we wanted, he'd be driving a Ferrari.

It seems that in this life most things worth having take work to earn. Fortunately, not much worth having is free. I say "most things" because the ultimate is a gift. Salvation is a free gift of grace. Even the faith to receive salvation is a gift (Eph 2:8-9). But after that, the Christian life takes work. A holy and sanctified life demands great effort. Here are a few divine quotations from the Apostle Paul that refer to forms of exercise.

In Philippians 3 he speaks of our number one priority, knowing Christ, and compares that goal to a runner pushing himself to fullest to gain the prize.

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:10, 13-14

Here he illustrates the keys of discipline and self-control.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1Corinthians 9:24-27

Can you picture yourself, knowing that you are nearing the end of your life, being able to say this honestly, with a pure conscience?

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

2Timothy 4:7-8

When the race is uphill, taking your breath, and pushing you to the point of exhaustion think on this passage. There's a "Duh! Moment" in here. Take off the weights (lawful things that are not expedient) and the your pet sins that consistently trip you. Confess and repent before the Throne of Grace. Then consider the faithful that have gone before you. Hebrews 11 is a short biography of many included in that "great . . . cloud of witnesses" who have gone before us and lived successfully. Encouraging to me is that these faithful had very little if any of God's written Word and "all these died in faith, without receiving the promises" (Heb 11:13); none of them lived to see the fulfillment of the promised Messiah. Notice also the commitment of Christ. The King of Glory endured the cross with me in mind. Can I not endure my cross (Mark 8:34-35) with Him in mind?

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:1-3

So while physical exercise if beneficial, let it remind us of the much needed spiritual exercise. I like the way this thought is translated in the ESV.

For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
1Timothy 4:8