DAILY DEVOTIONAL – July 29, 2020

“Get Pumped”

Prayer:  God our Father, we praise You for sending Your Son Jesus who lived perfectly and faithfully for You.  He alone lived the life we were supposed to live, and only by faith in His life, death, and resurrection do we have the hope of salvation.  By the power of Your Holy Spirit, help us to live out our lives of faith with the desire to please You only.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 20:46-47

⁴⁶ “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, ⁴⁷ who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Devotion – “Get Pumped!”

A few years back, Bryant Gumbel’s Real Sports program took a behind the scenes look into the real world of competitive body building.  Bryant spoke with a woman named Collette Nelson who is a champion female body builder. With bulging biceps, chiseled abs, thunderous thighs, and perfect pecs, (all shimmering and covered with enhanced oils and spray on tanning solution) Collette is the epitome of the ideal female physique – at least in the world of female body building.

Even if the body builder physique isn’t appealing to you, you can certainly appreciate her commitment to ultimate fitness, right? I mean, what could be healthier or more ideal than a person pumped up to their prime?  Well, as the interview reveals, looks can definitely be deceiving.  In the interview Collette said that as a professional body builder, “You’re the most unhealthy the day of a show.  You’re dehydrated. You’ve eaten limited food. You’ve been over trained. You’re taking some type of diuretic, whether it be natural or not, and on that day of the show, I’ve gotta tell you, you look like perfection but inside you’re just barely hanging on.”

Isn’t it true that we are our most unhealthy at those times when we’re trying hardest to build ourselves up in comparison to others or in order to impress others? As Collette put it, “You’re the most unhealthy the day of a show!”  When we look to others for approval or try to find our worth and value in being bigger and better than the next person, we become spiritually dehydrated and malnourished. We may think we look like perfection on the outside, but inside we’re just barely hanging on.

Why you are doing something can have an exponentially and even contradictory affect to what it is you are doing.  Body building for body building’s sake is not inherently bad.  Collette and her fellow body builders were no doubt eating incredibly healthy and exercising to great success getting ready for the show.  However, when all of that hard work and discipline is done for the purpose of competing with others and putting on show, that is when what was intended for better living starts to kill you.

This is exactly what Jesus was warning His disciples about in Luke 20.  The scribes were no doubt very accomplished, intelligent, and revered men who deserved to be recognized for knowledge of the Word of God – the Word of God that has promised and that does in fact give life to men, even eternal life!  Unfortunately, the scribes were only using the Word of God’s love to love themselves.  They weren’t building up their spiritual muscles and theological knowledge in order to better know and draw closer to the God who wrote the Scriptures, but to be known by and worshiped by mortal men.  Jesus makes clear that the Word of God was not given in order to build ourselves up, but to build others up.  God’s Word is first given to bring us to a knowledge of the truth and raise us up from death to life through faith in Christ who is the Word Incarnate and who fulfilled that Word of God through His own death that He died for others, even sinners like you and me.  For those who have been saved and who have been brought to a knowledge of the truth by God’s grace, that same Word of God that saved us and raised us up should be used to build up others; to build up our brothers and sisters in Christ and raise up those who are still dead in their trespasses.

God’s Word says in 1 Thessalonians 5, “⁹ For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

We absolutely should exercise and build ourselves up in the knowledge and Word of the Lord that has come to us and that has saved us.  We should approach our spiritual discipline and our discipleship after the Lord Jesus much the same way a body builder approaches their workouts; with great intensity.

• We should fill ourselves with the best nutrition. Jesus says in John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
• We should add all the right supplements to our diet. 2 Peter 1:3-8 instructs us that because God’s “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,  knowledge,  self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• We should regularly exercise our faith as well. James 2:26 says, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”  And Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Above all, we should work hard and diligently and build ourselves up in the Word of the Lord and grow up in our faith for the right reason.  Jesus makes clear what the right reason is when He says in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

So my friends, while you make your grocery list of healthy foods and make room in your busy schedule to work in a work out, don’t forget the Bread of Life that will nourish you for all of eternity or neglect to exercise the free gift of faith and salvation you have been given in God’s Word and that will help you endure to the end.  As Scripture says in 1 Timothy 4:8, “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.”

Thanks for eating right and exercising with me today.  I feel better and I pray you do as well, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow.  Amen.