Exercise

It’s amazing how you can forget about something until you start working at it. About a week ago I started to exercising a bit more, which really doesn’t say much. Thanks to my mother’s genes I was blessed with a naturally slender figure and so I rarely felt the need to exercise. Nonetheless I’ve decided to start working out more and boy oh boy, do I have a lot of muscles I had forgotten about. After that first day, every move makes you aware of what each muscle does as you go about your daily routine.

For a while now I’ve been feeling as though God has drifted away somehow, or maybe it’s me who’s slipped away. It seems as if I know what I believe factually, but the emotion behind it is gone. I’ve been trying so hard to regain that relationship and once again feel as though the Holy Spirit is with me. But the challenging thing is, how do you make yourself feel something again? How do you make your soul feel the presence of the Almighty again?

I’d been struggling through this for quite a while when A.W. Tozer came to my rescue once again. His book, The Pursuit of God, (which I recommend to all of you), is an excellent guide for those who long to be closer to God but cannot seem to find their way (back) to God. The fourth chapter spoke the exact words that I needed to hear.

“As we begin to focus upon God the things of the spirit will take shape before our inner eyes. Obedience to the word of Christ will bring an inward revelation of the Godhead. It will give acute perception enabling us to see God even as is promised to the pure in heart. A new God-consciousness will seize upon us and we shall begin to taste and hear and inwardly feel the God who is our life and our all. There will be seen the constant shining of the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. More and more, as our faculties grow sharper and more sure, God will become to us the great All, and His Presence the glory and wonder of our lives,”

Different people may take Tozer’s words differently, but to me it was an encouragement to seek God’s hand in my daily life. Even though it feels as if God is far off, when I take the time to look at the things that happen day by day, I can see His hand working, even in small things. Just like with my exercising: by focusing on my muscles I’m more aware of them in my daily routine. By focusing on God in my daily life I see His work more clearly too.

You may be perfectly fine with your relationship with God, not feeling the need to seek His hand throughout your day. But that’s just like not working out because your body looks like it’s fine. Truth is, there is always room for improvement. And by exercising your “inner eyes” and looking for God you can grow stronger in body and spirit.