Spiritual Fitness

You can't be spiritually fit without considering the place Jesus has in your life.  We know that Jesus today is the Son of God, sitting on the right hand of the Father and interceding on our behalf for our salvation. On Easter we celebrate Him as the risen Lord, the divine God who rose from the dead and by so doing paid the price for our sinfulness so that we can accept that sacrifice and have eternal life with Him.  I have to stop and remember the earthly Jesus though.  Yes He was the son of God but He was also a human being, a man just like me.

Jesus was born on the earth like any other baby.  He grew within the womb of an ordinary woman, struggled into the outside world while causing his mother pain. Undoubtedly he cried upon exposure to the world outside of the comfy womb he had been so comfortable in.  He grew up as a normal boy (for the most part), playing with friends, falling and skinning his knee's, running and participating in games.  As he grew older he learned the skill of carpentry.  He probably busted his thumb a time or two, maybe he fell off a scaffold.  The point is he knew what it was like to be a normal boy and a young man as he grew up in Nazareth.  Once he began his ministry he became an itinerant, walking from place to place trying to show the love of God to people. He got hungry, he got thirsty, he got tired of walking and had to take rest breaks.  He experienced joys and sorrows.  He was well accepted and was despised. He got angry, he laughed, he enjoyed the crowds but at times he craved being alone.  He was every bit a man as I am a man today.  As he approached the end of his life, only in his early thirties, he experienced fear at what he was to face.  Jesus, however, knew that He was the son of God and that his painful, inglorious death would be required in order that God's love could be shown to us.  He suffered the beatings, the trip up to Calvary's hill lugging his own cross when he easily could have avoided it.  He was God after all.  He chose to feel every bit of pain as the nails were driven through his hands and he was lifted up onto the cross.

Thank you Jesus that as a man you suffered so that as the Son of God you could guarantee me life eternal in heaven.  I do not deserve such a sacrifice, the fact that you made the sacrifice anyway is an expression of just how much you love me.  I am spiritually fit only to the extent that I continue to give you Lordship of my life.  Thank you my friend, my Savior.