If you want to work out your muscle of faith, strengthen it by staying in God’s Word.
SHAUNA: It’s Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope with a special memory from Joni and a lesson.
JONI: I once owned a horse who was a great jumper. And for an entire summer, this horse and I, we cleaned up blue ribbons at all kinds of horse shows. Even away from the show ring and on the trail, I could ask him to sail over fence after fence, all the while keeping a steady gallop. This horse was trained for endurance. He could go all day without tiring, and he seemed to almost rejoice in his strength. However, when I returned to school in the fall, I put him out to pasture. After a month or so, and before it got cold, I decided to saddle him up for one more joyride before the first snows came. After three fences and less than half a mile, my horse was wheezing and lathered. I asked him for more, but it just wasn’t there. His head drooped and his pace slowed. My horse was out of training, and it showed not only in his performance, but in his countenance.
You know, I think of that old horse when I come up against a temptation and seem to have no resources, no strength to say “no.” It could be wasted time listening to the wrong music, or eating the wrong things, or glancing at the covers of the wrong magazines. And it doesn’t even have to be wrong stuff. Like sometimes on the History Channel, I watch American Pickers. I don’t know if you know that show, but it’s pretty benign, but a half an hour of watching guys collect stupid things out of other peoples’ junkyards. Well, you know what? It’s not healthy for the soul. At those times [and I know when those times are] I shouldn’t be surprised when I don’t want to change the channel, or close the refrigerator door, or turn off my playlist. I’ve been out of training. I have no endurance.
And you know, we are all the same. We fiddle-faddle, meandering through life, ignoring spiritual disciplines like fasting, praying, regular Bible reading. Then suddenly, when temptation ambushes us, or we get hit with a heavy trial, we wonder why we lack faith, or the power to trust God, or to say “no,” or we lack the faith to fight off depression or even discouragement. We plead for help from God, but it’s just not there; we “feel” no sense of his help because we have been standing too long outside the shower of his mercy. We don’t feel remorse about that, though, instead, our knee-jerk reaction is to fume that God’s grace isn’t sufficient or that he’s abandoned us.
Not so at all! The strength isn’t there because we are out of training. We can’t expect to exhibit godliness, especially at the snap of a finger when temptation strikes. We can’t expect to exhibit godliness if we’ve failed to follow the advice of 1 Timothy 4:7, where it says, “Train yourself to be godly.” Like what 1 Timothy 6 tells us, “Pursue righteousness, and faith, and love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.” Wow! I love that: Pursue. Fight. Take hold of. In other words, stay in training. Stay in the Word of God, the muscle of your faith can’t help but be strengthened when you stay in God's Word.
SHAUNA: Friend, another great way to stay in training is to listen to Joni’s timeless encouragement. You can find all her radio programs on joniradio.org. Consider it your new training aid; because Joni is always pointing us to the Bible and pointing us to Jesus, reminding us to never ever fault God that his grace is “not enough.” We may lack strength because we’ve been out of training. So, take hold today of every spiritual discipline.
© Joni and Friends