Lessons From The Gym

Hello everyone! I know I have kind of left you hanging for about a week now. About my tennis tournament, last time I mentioned it, I told you that I had won the first two rounds. This last Sunday I played the Semi finals and won that match 7-5, 6-0. Then came the finals, I was playing the #1 seed, it was by far the hardest match, but some how I pulled it out of the bag, I won! On Monday I was very, very sore from the sunburn (which is fine now) and all the muscles I haven't been using lately! But I feel much worse now, I was at the gym for 2 hours yesterday, which brings me to my little article...

When I was working out at the gym by myself yesterday, I noticed, our gym has two things going all the time, they have a TV & a radio, and I heard a very interesting song over the radio. I think it was by a younger girl singer, the name of the song was, It Comes Naturally, and the lyrics were awful! The name of the song pretty much described the lyrics, the song talked about love, boyfriends and "following your heart". I thought about it, and that is pretty much was the flesh does, you don't have to work very hard to fall into sin. The unsaved person just does what feels good, you don't have to think about it too much, it just Comes Naturally. After listening for about 10 seconds I thought, wow if this doesn't describe the flesh I don't know what does! It reminded me that SIN comes naturally. As Christians, we have to fight what Comes Naturally to our carnal selves. Roman 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Let this be a reminder to all of us, when our conscience tells us we are sinning, just stop, change the channel or stop hanging out with those friends. What ever it is that causes us to fall, we should just stop the activity. If you know you are struggling with a certain sin, pray about how to get out of it. We all want to live in the Spirit, & we can't fully do so until we have defeated all of our sinful patterns. 1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. So when we are battling temptation we should hold on to this precious promise. That right in the middle of a temptation we should look for an escape, God put it there so we could find it. And if we take the way of escape we will be overcomers and there are a lot of wonderful promises for the overcomer in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. The book of James also tells us we will receive a crown of life. James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. May God bless you all and may He give you grace as your strive to resist temptation and as you strive to do His will, in Jesus Name.

May God give all of you grace and peace, and may you have a wonderful weekend with your families!

Abigail Prudence