weights | The Wildberry Patch

Psalm 111:10 ESVThe fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!

The fear of the Lord is not obtained once, and then done! It is to be practiced!
I have felt like a failure when I have not “naturally” chosen the way of the Lord.
It doesn’t make me a failure…it just indicates my natural state won.
I have to practice the fear of the Lord!

Practice
Exercise
Choose

It’s a daily exercise.
With practice, it becomes easier.
And sometimes, choosing the fear/way of the Lord becomes the new nature!
With practice, I create new habits!
I am not a failure, I am a work in progress!

My husband, Jim, loves to do weight lifting.
He started out pretty strong, but as he daily practices his workouts, he has gotten his three main exercises over 300 pounds each.
That didn’t happen the first day, it happened by practicing.

We can know when we have stopped our practice sessions!
Something is missing!
Is your joy missing?
When my joy is missing, I know its because my position with God has changed.
My fellowship has changed.

Psalm 51 is the Old Testament ‘sinners prayer’.
Within the prayer I hear David begging to get back into fellowship with God.
That is the focus for repenting of sin!
Repairing the breach between us and God!

Ps51.7.ESV Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

The previous verse shows the ‘how’ of repentance:

Ps51.6.ESV Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

With that truth in the inward being, God promises to give us something very special:

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

When Jim has not done his weight training exercises, his muscles ache.
He starts to crave going to the gym to work out.
That is a learned response…from the practice of working out.
It’s not ‘natural’ for a body to want to exert energy, endure momentary pain, to reach a goal.
But because of Jim’s practice, he is moving forward, and now, his NEW natural is to desire to workout!

With a pure heart – we can cry out to the Lord for help….based on WHO HE IS!

Psalm 51:1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!

HE knows we are going to ‘fail’…but HE has made a way for us not to become ‘failures’!

Jim talks about learning to fail safely.
Because one has to take risks to increase the weight, one needs to know how to bail and not get hurt.
It is all part of the practice!
Jim has found people that have helped him learn methods to fail gracefully!
And each time we practice and fail, that is one way we don’t have to fail again, later!

We can ask God to help us practice! If we ask!

“Psalm 141:1ESV O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me!

Give ear to my voice when I call to you!
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
keep watch over the door of my lips!

Do not let my heart incline to any evil,
to busy myself with wicked deeds
in company with men who work iniquity,
and let me not eat of their delicacies!

Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness;
let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head;
let my head not refuse it.

Jim has told me that he has to fight sometimes to go to the gym in the morning.
The bed cries out to him “stay”!
He has to draw on his practice and choose to get up, and take his flesh in hand, and go do the work.
Sometimes, I have reminded him that he wanted to go.
He doesn’t always take that well – but he always thanks me when he comes back.

Likewise, if we want to practice the fear of the Lord, we have to be willing to crucify OUR flesh, and IF we need a ‘wake up call’ – to be thankful, and not refuse it!

For His help in guiding us along the way – delivering us from the Egypt of our sin, Our God requires that we worship HIM and only Him:

MY/our GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD…He wants to be MY/our all….

Ps81.9.ESV
“There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

AND I GIVE HIM my all…it is foolishness to those who don’t know Him…but to us who know HIM, it is life!
But for the filling of my heart from the fountain of God…it is worth it!

For Jim, that next five pounds, the ache of having worked out, that recognition that he has steadily moved forward, even in the face of injuries, trials, and struggles, he is energized. For clarity, Jim does not worship working out and weight training. He does this to keep his body strong as the temple of the Holy Ghost.
The Bible does use exercise as an analogy for our walk with God – as in running a race.
It’s not who gets there first, it’s who keeps on trodding along and makes it to the finish line!

Proverb 21 has a few verses that combine this thought all together:

Prov21.2.ESV Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the heart.

To do righteousness and justice
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness
will find life, righteousness, and honor.

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue
keeps himself out of trouble.

I want to live my life to glorify God.
I want to know the fear of the Lord, and to walk in His wisdom.
I am amazed how often, reading the same ol’ verses brings a new light for a new day.
Reading the Bible daily – practicing the fear of the Lord!
Now, where is that one pound dumbell????

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!
Or ‘like’ me!

If you like The WildBerry Patch, follow me with the RSS feed.

We have email subscription! Just sign up for an account, and you can manage your subscription from the dashboard!
Soon, we will have a gallery for the art I have created by the hand of God.