Am I the only one that thinks that Gym wears are fast becoming the official uniform for Saturday mornings in Lagos? Surely I’m not the only one! Just step out of the house anytime from 6am or peep through your window and you’ll see everybody fully kitted either for some weight loss and cardio exercises?
People are now more health-conscious than ever before and it’s really good. It helps us take care of some avoidable conditions in our old age that typically leads to unnecessary death. What’s more? As part of the perks, if you are a young man you get six packs to show the world as a result of your discipline, of course, there’s those who are also using it to hunt down the carnally minded sisters up and down. For the ladies, you probably get the body of your dream-the slim looking shape you have been obsessed with from reading those photoshopped magazines.
Interestingly, we even set goals and daily targets for how we want to exercise, what healthy foods to eat in order to complement it. A lot of work goes into exercising unto good health and a fit body, however, the question is how much effort goes into making our soul healthy and making our spirit fit? Afterall the scripture says “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8)
Nice-looking body, the six-packs, the lovely shape and the healthy heart as far as God is concerned are nothing more than a little profit compared to what godliness could profit us. While godliness may sound like one big spiritual grammar, it simply means God-likeness (being like God). The efforts we make at being like Christ have profits for us both in this world and in the world to come unlike the profits that physical exercise has to offer all of which will end in this world.
Therefore, it’s time to begin to ask ourselves critical questions. There are 1,189 chapters in the scripture. If you decide to read 2 chapters one in the morning and one in the evening everyday consistently, by the end of 2 years you would have covered the entire bible. The audio bible is 90 hours (from Genesis to Revelation). If you commit 20 minutes everyday to listen to audio bible and just 10 minutes to pray everyday, in 270 days (9 months) you would have listened to the entire scripture and prayed for 450 hours (Approximately 19 days). That’s about 5% of the whole year spent praying already. I promise you your life cannot remain the same.
The truth is that there is a deliberate attempt by the enemy to distract us from spiritual things by constantly distracting us through the strategy of magnifying earthly things to have more value but we must resist this temptation by making deliberate decisions to engage in spiritual activities as much as we are engaging in the physical.
May God open our eyes so that we are able to rise above this deceit of the devil and become an overcomer in this end time in Jesus name.
Victor Oluwatayo
