Un-PUNYfied!

Even as an athlete growing up I never fully understood the true value weight lifting. But when playing sports in high school "let's hit the weight room" is a term you learn to expect. I could get on board with just lifting light weights here and there but that doesn't quite fly when you have a football coach for your soccer coach!

He was always pushing us to "add more weight" and to someone as puny as me that seemed like an absurd concept. But as important to me as it was to become the best athlete I could I realized that was a part of the process.Growing pains isn't just an old TV sitcom folks!               

Muscles are something I think we often take for granted but are extremely important. It would be impossible for us to do anything without our muscles!

When most people think of "muscles," they only think about the muscles that we can see. But did you know we have over 600?! No seriously, I googled it!;)

They help our body function the way it was created to.The stronger they are the better our body operates!

Did you know God wants to helps us build muscle too?....faith muscles. The most important muscles we can have.The muscles we may not be able to see but are crucial to the life He has for us.

  "The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace."Psalm 29:11

Just like weight training the process of building faith muscles can be painful.

As someone who has fibromyalgia my muscles are in a constant state of pain and tension with often weakness, so the last thing you'd think I'd want to do is lift weights and cause them even more pain.right? But you know what's crazy? I actually love lifting weights now!Is it always easy? No way Jose! But I know the pain I get from it is for a reason. It reminds me that the pain has purpose.

I know each time I lift that weight it’s making me stronger and it gets easier. Not because it becomes less heavy but because my muscles are being strengthened to handle the weight better.I know gradually I'll be able to handle more weight. Just like each time we face a test or trial in life it can make us stronger as a person and in our faith. It doesn’t mean the trials will always get easier it just means we’ll be better equipped to handle them when they come.

A strong faith is not an overnight thing and there will always, always be room for improvement.Building muscles is a process and it won’t always be easy. In fact more often than not it will be challenging and painful but that's the only way to get stronger.It will be worth it! 

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength."Philippians 4:13

 Just going to church doesn't make you spiritually fit any more than simply walking into the gym gives you Arnold Schwarzenegger-fied muscles! It takes more than that.

It takes discipline...Praying, studying God's word, and focusing on Him when everything else around you has you feeling like a frail,baby kitten fighting a beast of a lion!

Even when your circumstances scream you have every reason to fear,doubt,or to just give up. God will give you the strength in those trials to push through. He's always at work even if we don't understand it!

Whether it’s your trial or someone close to you. We are either in a trial, just coming out of a trial, or will soon be in a trial. In the words of my favorite singer, Frank Sinatra, "That's life" But don't let that discourage you! God told us we'd have troubles in this world but He's already overcome them! Can I get a raise the roof HALLELUJER?! That's why it's important to build faith muscles., so we're more prepared to handle them when they come.  We push through the pain, we push past the discomfort knowing the results will be more than worth it. That’s how we build hulk-like muscles.

For so long I thought I was okay with a mediocre faith because it was comfortable, but not anymore. I don't want a puny faith!Do you? I want to be challenged because I want to be as strong as I can possibly be to face whatever comes my way.God's giving me strength to fight the limits of my health but more importantly than that He's giving me the desire to pick up those weights in the midst of a trial, building my faith muscles in the process. 

He knows how much weight we can handle. I know sometimes it feels like it's too much but who knows better what we're equipped for than the one who created us? God wants to show us just how strong we can be through Him. So let's pump some iron and get Un-PUNYfied!

  “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3-4)