About five years ago God began to prompt me to quit lifting weights. Being that my body had become my identity I pressed His voice aside, and explained it away as nothing but my legalistic mind getting in the way. The Lord graciously increased His promptings by taking away my peace. It reached the point that every time I went to the gym my conscience grew unsettled, where I finally admitted that perhaps God was trying to get my attention. Because my dependency on pumping metal was as extreme as it was (when I would miss I would struggle with depression and crabbiness; and when I lifted I was then at the top of my game) it took me about another year before I finally came to terms with God's desire. I finally sacrificed the most important treasure to me at that time, and obeyed my Master.
After I decided to obey I could sense the Lord saying that He was preparing me to sacrifice greater things in the future. As I look back I can see that that sacrifice did indeed prepare me to make the most precious offering to the Lord today, my wife. As I wrote in earlier blogs, He told me to sacrifice Trisha in order to obey His calling by embarking on Prayer Walk Middle East.
As I have been meditating on Matthew 25: 15-30, and the following verses, I have been receiving renewed revelation of greater depth then what I had previously seen. Our obedience to Christ's calling is comparable to investing the talents that He has given us. He starts by giving a smaller portion of talents, and when we are wise stewards He then increases our influence. So, it could look like this. He starts by asking us to obey Him in the smaller decisions of life. And when He finds willing servants He then asks us to obey with decisions of greater responsibility and impact!
I obeyed Him by giving up working out. He then proceeded to ask me to give up my wife. I wonder, if I had never sacrificed my muscles, would the Lord have trusted me to serve Him on this present Middle East trip? I don't think He would have.
So my closing thought is this; if you feel prompted to obey God, and no matter the size of His request, DO IT! Your future destiny could very well be in the works!
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I think the weight lifting deal was a result of God putting himself First in your life again. I do not think He intended you to give them up - they were taking His place in your life. God wants you to grow - not sacrifice; Jesus already did that on the cross.
ReplyDeleteRemember Joseph, He prospered every where God sent him and I don't think he ever thought going to prison was a result of need for sacrifice. God always is looking for us to grow and always looking for ways for us to recieve His blessings.