Being physically fit and healthy is important to me. Do you know what happens when you take a break from exercising? I do. We lose our stamina. Our muscles don’t stay toned. We gain fat. We tire more easily. We experience the negative side of stress.
Regaining physical fitness is hard work. It feels like you have to start all over. It’s generally painful. Most often, we need a way to stay motivated so that we don’t give up. We also need someone who knows what they’re doing to show us how to become fit and healthy at the right pace.
One thing I’ve learned over the years, there’s a way to set the pace so that we stay the course, don’t get injured, and don’t give up.
Friends, it’s the same with our spiritual fitness and health.
We need a pacesetter.
A pacesetter is the one who sets the pace for another, takes the lead, sets the example, and serves to establish and maintain our pace.
For our spiritual fitness and health, Jesus is the Pacesetter.
The Treadmill
The other evening as I was exercising on a treadmill, I set the time for one hour. Throughout that hour I adjusted the intensity level and pace. Sometimes I walked. Sometimes I ran. I would adjust the pace based on my level of fatigue since I’m just starting to exercise again, and I don’t want to get injured.
As I was checking my heart rate, I realized that’s what Jesus does.
He checks our heart rate.
Jesus is the Pacesetter.
If we’re going too slow, He speeds things up to increase the strength of our heart. If we’re going to fast, Jesus slows things down.
Jesus is the Pacesetter.
Sometimes Jesus will make the exercise last longer to increase our endurance. Sometimes He makes us do interval training, which requires different rates of speed and degrees of effort in shorter bursts.
Jesus is the Pacesetter.
Like I adjust my treadmill workout based on my physical fitness level, Jesus adjusts the level of difficulty based on our current spiritual fitness level.
Jesus is the Pacesetter.
However, Jesus will challenge us.
We may start out slow, but ultimately Jesus wants us to work up to higher levels of intensity and complexity.
The thing is Jesus knows the best workout for each one of us. He will challenge us in all the right ways.
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)
Keeping Pace with Jesus
Galatians 5:25 says,
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
If we are His children, we need to keep in step with Him.
We’re called to follow in His steps.
1 Peter 2:21 says,
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.
Jesus is the Pacesetter.
Jesus wants us to finish strong, not weak. He wants us to be spiritually fit and healthy so that one day we each can say like Paul:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).
Jesus’ desire is for each one of us to run in such way that we get the prize.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Cororintians 9:24)
Don’t let others keep you from running a good race. Don’t let others keep you from obeying the truth and following in Jesus’ steps. (Galatians 5:7)
My prayer for you during this Advent season that you would let Jesus be your pacesetter so that you can run with perseverance the path marked out for you by Jesus Himself. May you fix your eyes on Jesus. May you throw off everything that hinders you and the sin that can so easily entraps you. May you keep pace with Jesus and let Him be your Pacesetter. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
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