I am an early riser. During the week I get up early in the morning before everyone else and I spend time reading my Bible and praying. I then head to the gym and work out.
I was reading this morning in Romans 12
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2
To most of us these are pretty familiar verses, specifically the first part of verse 2, about being transformed and renewing our minds. But the second part of the verse is what stuck out to me this morning. Why do we need to be transformed and renew our minds? So we may prove, or discern or as the Greek says, test, what the good and pleasing and perfect will of God is. We are bombarded with information these days and what I believe these verses are saying is we need to renew or change our perspective to see things from a Biblical standpoint or try and see things from God’s perspective as best we can and test the information that come our way. We can’t understand or see God’s will if we are looks at things through the lenses of the world, we need to look through the lenses of God’s Word and Truth to understand what His will is.
Think about it, why would someone give up His most precious gift for someone else, the world and out culture speaks just the opposite, logically, it makes no sense. But God loves us so much He gave His one and only Son to pay for our since so we could be in His presence and have fellowship with Him.
Now for the the body part, I am a proponent of exercising, I am no fitness nut by any means, but as I get older, my body, and mind, tends to function better with exercise and physical exertion. While I understand some people have physical limitations for whatever reason, time can also be a constraint, some exercise is good for you, even just walking. God created our bodies and since we are stewards of everything God gives us, we need to try our best within our abilities to take care of ourselves. Our bodies are the temples which the Holy Spirit dwells within once we become followers of Jesus. So we should do our best to take care of His temple living sacrificially and for His service for His glory. There are days I don’t want to get up and would rather get another hour or so of sleep, but I find if I start my day exercising, I actually have a little more energy for the day.
So I look at the start of my day as my spiritual workout followed by my physical workout. We read often that Jesus rose early in the morning to pray, I believe He did that to commune with the Father to figure out the plan ahead, to make sure He was on the right track following the Will of the Father.
I pray this encourages you to start the day in God’s Word, praying and talking with your Heavenly Father seeking Him and His will for you for the day. Wrestle over God’s Word, It and He will bless you for it, Jacob did and God blessed him for it.
