Exercise daily in God -no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. 1 Timothy 4:8 (MSG)
A lot of Christians especially in the African Continent, have been deceived to believe that their Faith in God replaces Principles that govern human endeavors. Average Christians believe in praying to God for everything, including asking God to take responsibility for their human obligations. As Christians we fail to realize that in as much as it is God’s responsibility to make available a body for man, it is man’s sole responsibility to take care of the body God gave him.
Amazingly, Apostle Paul as seen in our text, wrote to Timothy and said “Please! Workouts in the Gymnasium are useful.” In as much as this Scripture lays more emphasis on Spiritual exercise, The Apostle Paul declares to Timothy how important it is for a Christian to have a workout routine. Paul was one of the most travelled Apostles of His time and for the fact that he emphasized on the importance of physical exercise, that tells us he was fully committed to his workout routines. Little wonder, we never heard any record of Paul falling ill or taking medication for any ailment in fact, the Apostle Paul did not die of sickness.
It is disheartening how we jump out of bed early in the morning, go out on our jobs and businesses, return late at night, eat food without minding our diets, and go back to bed again and the cycle continues. We finally breakdown due to our carelessness and blame God for allowing sickness in our bodies. When we fall sick, we ask God for divine healing but we forget that living in divine health is first our responsibility and then God’s duty to ensure it.
Having a good food time table, engaging your daily workout routines, visiting your Doctor periodically for Medical check-ups, and fumigating your immediate environment is your responsibility and not God’s responsibility. “God gave you brains so that you can give Him rest” (Bishop David Oyedepo). Article by Ibrahim Luka.
