By David Feddes


Total fitness

  • Spiritual
  • Physical
  • Financial
  • Intellectual
  • Emotional
  • Relational
  • Vocational


Fitness dangers

  • Self-salvation: Basing standing with God on my fitness, not Jesus’ fitness.
  • Self-transformation: Changing by my efforts, not by the Spirit.
  • Self-worship: Making total fitness my #1 goal and using God to get it.
  • Self-protection: Seeking safety from sorrow rather than bearing crosses.
  • Superiority: Despising strugglers in an area where I feel fit.
  • Inferiority: Despising myself in an areas where others seem more fit.
  • Smugness: Thinking I am totally fit even before Jesus returns.
  • Insecurity: Obsessing over fitness and pressuring myself.


Realistic fitness

  • Salvation: My standing with God rests on Jesus’ fitness, not mine.
  • Transformation: Spirit changes me and matures Christ in me.
  • Worship: Knowing and adoring God in all I do is my main goal for fitness.
  • Protection: In and beyond every cross is resurrection life.
  • Unity: I am a struggler like other struggling believers. I am a saint like other saints. Not superior or inferior.
  • Eagerness: I am eager for God to change and use me, and eager for Jesus to return and renew all things.
  • Security: I live free from pressure as God keeps working in me.

 

2 Corinthians 2-4

2:15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

3:4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 

3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

4:5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 4:10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.


Unfit, yet totally fit

Unfit: Who is sufficient for these things? Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us…

Totally fit: Our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant... The Spirit gives life.

Clay jars: …to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.


Honestly unfit

  • Transparent: You don’t pretend or hide.
  • Vulnerable: You risk exposure, failure.
  • Afflicted: You face troubles and griefs.
  • Perplexed: You can’t figure it all out.
  • Persecuted: You are rejected, picked on.
  • Struggling: You aren’t on top of things.
  • Dying: Resurrection is your only hope.


Fit to convey Christ

  • Scent of Christ: Through us God spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him... For we are the aroma of Christ. (2 Cor 2:14-15)
  • Sight of Christ: Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. (2 Cor 3:18)
  • Sound of Christ: God has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:19)


Totally fit

Our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit… The Spirit gives life… We are being transformed from glory to glory… God has shone in our hearts… the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.


Power in weakness

He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me… For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)


God’s power, your effort

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness… For this very reason, make every effort … be all the more diligent. (2 Peter 1:3-10)

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you. (Philippians 2:12-13)


Get wisdom!

  • Revere Ruler
  • Treasure truth
  • Keep commands
  • Research reality
  • Accept advice
  • Ponder path


Train yourself

Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

Unfit, yet totally fit

Honor God and serve others, in fitness and brokenness.

  • Spiritual
  • Physical
  • Financial
  • Intellectual
  • Emotional
  • Relational
  • Vocational


Unfit, yet totally fit

Unfit: Who is sufficient for these things? Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us…

Totally fit: Our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant... The Spirit gives life.

Clay jars: …to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

 

Last modified: Thursday, April 25, 2024, 11:36 AM