A Fitness Program with Benefits Out of This World Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: A Fitness Program with Benefits Out of This World-------------------------- Date: 6/2/2001 Keywords: "discipline" "promise" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: 1 Timothy 4:7-8* Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God — no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. Questions 1. What good is a workout on a treadmill, weight machine or stair-stepper?   2. What would be the spiritual and moral equivalent of a sweaty workout in the gym?   3. Which workout is more beneficial over the long haul, according to Paul?   Practical help The daily discipline of dragging your body around the weight circuit or up and down hills for a hard run is not necessarily fun. However, the payoff in terms of weight lost, inches gained (in the right places), rock-hard abs, and improved cardiovascular make the time sweating and straining worth it. The moral equivalent to a good workout is the disciplined use of the word "No." When temptation time rolls around and you are sooooo drawn to want to give in to the Twinkies of porn, the Bible says that exercising your "No" muscle will benefit your spirit even more than that morning four-mile run did for your body. Sure enough, after you firmly say "No" — and mean it, walking away from that Internet pollution — you experience the same "high" in your spirit that your body does at the end of a workout. You know it was worth it. You are becoming more "fit" for Jesus’ use. Paul even says you are becoming more fit for Heaven! eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2001 by eXXit *"Scriptures are from The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English. Navpress, 1993 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.