Resistance, Repentance and Repetitions

Resistance

When you hear the phrase resistance training what comes to mind? For most people it conjures up some combination of weightlifting or bodybuilding. Muscle bound men and women straining under heavy weights, sweat beading their brows as they grunt and strain to lift heavily loaded barbells. Resistance training, though strenuous and challenging, is actually quite simple. By training our muscles using greater amounts of resistance they get bigger and stronger over time. The more resistance we can push or pull against, the stronger we are. 

Aerobic training doesn’t typically use weights but shares a similar principle. The resistance we train against isn’t weight but discomfort. Running or hiking stresses our heart and lungs as they are forced to work harder to deliver oxygen throughout the body. Building our “engine” to go longer distances takes time and patience. Nobody goes from sitting at work to running a marathon without some intentional effort. 

The same principle holds regardless of what area of our life we apply it to. How do we build patience? It’s not by removing ourselves from difficult situations but by leaning into them and learning how to wait. If we want to develop our ability to focus, we start concentrating on one task with small amounts of time and gradually increase it. As a father, this is one of the areas that concerns me the most for my children in an age of constant distraction and noise. It takes intentional effort to build that ability and push back against the cultural current. 

Developing spiritual strength works in the same way. The muscle we exercise isn’t our biceps or willpower but our faith. Faith is what is required to live a life pleasing to God. Indeed, it was faith that made Jesus marvel, nothing else. The writer of Hebrews tells us that “without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Not difficult, not unlikely, impossible. Faith speaks not only to our actions but to our motivations and what drives us. This is why a Roman Centurion’s faith was so amazing to Jesus. 

How do we train or exercise our faith, then? Athletes need a plan to build muscle and develop strength. How could we design a plan to strengthen our faith and live pleasing to God? 

Repentance 

It starts with repentance. Admitting that we have been trying to figure out life independently and rejected God. Repentance is simply turning around. It is admitting we need God’s help to deal with the problem of sin and trusting that what Jesus did on the cross is enough to resolve our situation. 

Repentance is an ongoing process. We consistently repent because we are constantly changing and growing. Thankfully, God doesn’t ask us to do everything all at once. Fathers don’t expect their children to come out of the womb walking or take more than a step or two when they first learn to walk. 

Instead, we celebrate one or two steps in much the same way we celebrate an adult finishing a marathon. Parents can celebrate those steps because they represent hope and promise for what is to come. The excitement is both for that moment and for what is to come. 

Jesus told His disciples that there is a celebration in heaven over one person who returns to a relationship with God. The celebration isn’t because the process is complete or that person will be perfect from that day forward. The excitement is for the initial steps, knowing full well that there will be plenty of falls in the future.

Discomfort and Resistance

That initial decision to trust Jesus is the most important. It sets our feet on the path and gives us the destination. Every day after that, however, we will have the opportunity to keep walking what He described as the narrow path or to turn back to old habits, traditions, or cultural trends. 

The more we step forward in faith, the more we confront our old way of living, and we will have the choice to lean into the sometimes uncomfortable situation of depending on God or relying on ourselves. 

I really believe there should always be at least one aspect of our lives that is only explainable by faith. It may be the direction we feel led professionally, a relationship He is asking us to invest in, or maybe even a club or hobby we take up. It doesn’t have to be anything huge or attention-grabbing; it just has to be subtle proof that we are walking by faith. 

Throughout the New Testament, we see that as people walk with God, the Holy Spirit constantly nudging them to look more and more like Jesus. The real danger to our faith isn’t usually anything major. We can typically spot the big obstacles for what they are.

What will more likely atrophy our faith is comfort or lack of exercise. Just like our muscles weaken without use, our faith will grow stagnant if we don’t rely on it daily. Most of us can get through our day pretty well without much difficulty. We can begin to live self-sufficiently, relying on our own ability and wisdom to meet our needs and manage. Comfort has a way of leading to complacency. We can remain blissfully ignorant until we find ourselves getting winded walking up the stairs or unable to perform what should be simple tasks. 

Lots of Repetitions

AS Prilepin was a Russian strength and conditioning coach in the 1970s. He developed an incredibly successful training system for athletes at the time, built around pairing an ideal number of repetitions with a corresponding training goal. 

Building pure strength and power required nearly maximum weight effort for minimal repetitions. Endurance was trained by lifting lighter weights for higher sets of repetitions. 

There are moments in our spiritual journey when God asks us to take a big step of faith. These decisions can involve moving overseas, making an uncertain career change, or taking on or letting go of responsibility. They require us to lean on our faith and can often serve as markers in our lives. Down the road, we can look back and be strengthened in our faith when we remember God’s faithfulness.

Thankfully, this isn’t an everyday occurrence. More often than not, we will be working on the endurance of training our faith. Small, daily decisions that serve to shape our character and heart over time, sometimes without us even realizing it’s happening. Each small opportunity makes it more and more natural to trust God, to live by faith, and to develop perseverance. 

Healthy for Life

Being healthy or fit isn’t a one-time decision. We don’t wake up one day, decide to be in good shape, check the box, and then consider it done. Most of us overestimate how difficult it is to be healthy and underestimate how long it takes. 

Living a life of faith works in much the same way. Most of the time, it’s not hard or complicated. There are challenging moments, of course, but most of the time, it’s as simple as putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward on the journey. 

As we close with an exhortation from Paul, think of suffering not as something bad that happens to us but as something that we experience as a consequence of faith. Suffering is not always a negative to be avoided but as part of our spiritual training, meant not for our discouragement but to strengthen us and equip us to finish well. 

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

May God bless you and help you walk strongly with endurance and hope