Have you ever tried to
physically become stronger?
Although I'm not an expert, I have spent some time dabbling in woman's weight lifting. Physically speaking, I'm a pretty strong person to begin with, BUUUUUT, no matter HOW strong you may be, if you want to become stronger, you don't get there by starting with your goal.
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In other words, when I was weight lifting, I started off with being able to press about 60 pounds over my head, with my person trainer spotting me for safety precautions. However, if my goal was to be able to bench press 100 pounds, I didn't get there by just picking up 100 pounds and start pressing it. I made small changes, adding on 2-5 pounds weekly, slowly but surely getting stronger with each weight added on to eventually reach my goal.
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Now for a woman, I am naturally stronger than most, but not as strong most men. Physically speaking, we are all made differently, men naturally have a tendency to be physically stronger than woman, but we ALL have the potential to become a physically stronger person, IF we work on it.
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Spiritually speaking, it works THE SAME way. Some of us are naturally just a stronger person than others. One of the strongest people I know was my mom. She was such an emotionally strong person. When she decided that she was going to leave behind everything she had once religiously embraced, she never looked back. She didn't care what anyone thought or said about her, her mind was made up and that was that. No matter what came her way, she just gritted her teeth and kept walking, she was a VERY STRONG PERSON.
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However, NOT all of us are naturally strong like my mom was. God made us all different. We are not all the same, some of us are just naturally a spiritually weaker person, YET, just because we have this tendency, does NOT mean that we don't have the potential to become a spiritually stronger person. Built inside each and everyone of us, is the capacity to become spiritually stronger.
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How can we spiritually become stronger?
Spiritual exercise is how we spiritually become stronger. Spiritual strength comes from seeking after God. We seek after God through prayer and studying His word. Yet, just like physical strength building, we don't get to our goal, by starting with our goal. We reach our big goals spiritually, by staying consistent with the small changes we make, working towards our ultimate goal.
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At the Bible college I attended quite a few years ago, there was a class I took on prayer. Our instructor taught us that everything in life has a beginning and that includes our prayer lives. If you want to pray an hour a day, you don't have to start off with that goal, you can start with something small and add on. You can start off with praying for 5 minutes every day, CONSISTENTLY, for a month, then the next month add on another 5 minutes and start praying for 10 minutes a day. Slowly but surely, you will spiritually begin to have a strong prayer life.
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OR if you don't want to set the timer, you could turn on some good Christian music and say, ok, I'm going to start off with praying through one whole song on this CD, then if I get lost in the spirit and end up feeling to pray longer, I won't become distracted by a buzzing timer. The same thing goes with reading the Bible, you don't have to start off with reading THE WHOLE Bible in ONE DAY. But everyday, CONSISTENTLY read a little bit of your Bible and eventually you'll have read it all the way through. It doesn't matter where you start out spiritually, you have the potential to become stronger.
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EXCUSES
Well, I'm just not a strong person you say and that may be true, some of are just naturally emotionally and spiritually weaker individuals, BUT the question isn't, are you strong? The question is: ARE YOU DOING ANYTHING to make yourself stronger??? If your thinking, well I'll NEVER be as strong as So and so, that's ok, God is NOT expecting you to be as strong as them, BUUUUUUT, he is expecting you be the strongest person YOU can possibly be!
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Don't be lazy,
START YOUR SPIRITUAL
STRENGTH BUILDING TODAY!!!
"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:5-8)
.♥Mary Frances :)
