Over the last year I’ve gotten back into the gym. When I was younger I was quite active in the gym and enjoyed lifting but some injuries and moving countries out a stop to that. But a year ago I started going back and lifting again. Personally I find that hitting the gym helps me to relax, clear my mind and it helps with both my mental and my physical health.
Last month I went to the gym at peak time just after work, all the machines were full but I wanted to stick to my workout routine. Normally I go to the gym with my wife, but I workout by myself. However, on that day I asked a guy how long he had left and he said a while but I could work in if I wanted (I could use the equipment while he rested and the other way around). So I did, but what happened next surprises me, he pushed me beyond what I thought I could do. He saw that I had more in the tank and encouraged me to up my weight on the equipment to go heavier.
Without that push, I probably wouldn’t have upped my weight on that exercise for another week. Having that extra encouragement helped me grow and improve.
That got me thinking about the Christian life. Often we can treat our Christian faith like a home workout, something we do by ourselves at home alone. We may do that because we’re nervous about showing our apparent lack of maturity in the faith, or maybe we just don’t want to be open and vulnerable in front of others. Sure, we attend church on a Sunday but we don’t invest time and the sermon quickly goes out of our head and we don’t challenge ourselves enough. Sound familiar?
Imagine if we do the same thing that I did in the gym with other Christians. Imagine if we came alongside a fellow Christian and spurred one another on to deeper maturity, wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to grow in our faith, understanding and practical outworking of the Christian faith?
But how do we do that?
1. Live life together
Discipleship isn’t just about sitting in a coffee shop reading the Bible together. Often the conversations about how we actually live out our faith in work as an employee or a boss, how we parents as a busy dad or a single mum, how we witness to our neighbours who absolutely do our heads in. A big pet of discipleship is seeing someone’s faith in action, how their faith impacts their actions, their words and their thought processes. That kind of relationship is only possible if people walk through life together in the mundane and the meaningful, in the beautiful and the boring thing of life.
2. Be open and vulnerable
Discipleship requires people to admit that they haven’t arrived, that they are not perfect. All of us fail and sharing that with a fellow Christian can help you grow as you confess your own weaknesses but it can also help the listener see how we confess to one another and support one another in growth. Being open and vulnerable isn’t always easy, but once people see that opening up can actually be freeing they are more likely to see how helpful it is.
3. Push each other on
We don’t want to become stagnant in our spiritual growth, we want to keep on growing and becoming more like Jesus. Having a Christian who disciples you helps you grow in the Lord as you both push each other on, challenging one another in the Bible and stretching each other’s understanding of the gospel and how it impacts your lives. Having a friend who helps you grow is what the church is for, we are to work together so that we can become the united and mature body that Jesus wants us to be (Ephesians 4). So meet with a fellow Christian, speak openly about life and push each other on in the Lord.
Similarly to weightlifting, change doesn’t happen over night, significant growth in the Christian life requires times, effort and others to spur you on to be the person that Jesus wants you to be for His glory. Don’t settle for comfortable Christianity, get in the spiritual gym and work hard for Jesus and the glory of the Kingdom of God.
Chalmers' Blog 