Physically, there are many reasons why people work out; one reason is rehabilitation. They were hurt or became ill.
Rehab defined: “Treat or treatments designed to facilitate the process of recovery from injury, illness or disease to as normal a condition as possible.”
So some people aren’t in the gym just to look better. Some people have been injured or had something happen to them and the doctor has told them, “Hey, if you want to get your life back, if you want to have as much life as you can possibly have, you need to rehab this muscle or body part. You need to exercise it so it can get back to what it normally is – or close to that point.”
It is also defined: “To restore to good health or useful life.”
The Bible encourages us to “work out” our faith (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, 1 Timothy 4:7-8) because it will keep our faith from being “ineffective and unproductive” (2 Peter 1:1-8)
Sometimes, in the course of life, our faith gets “damaged”, “injured”, “sick” or even “diseased”, and it ceases to do what it’s supposed to. We’re not meant to stay that way or retreat into a shadow of what faith should be.
As winning a race requires purpose and discipline, so does rehabilitation. If our faith is damaged, we must use Paul’s illustration that the Christian life takes hard work, self-denial and grueling preparation.
I find myself in need of daily rehabilitation work, prayer, Bible study, meditation on that Word and worship. Those are essential disciplines to get back up and rehab our faith with vigor and stamina. Daily faith rehab can use brothers and sisters in Christ as support and “workout partners.”
When “injured” or even healthy, we can’t merely observe from the grandstand and be strong. I can’t go weeks with out working out, but I get lazy, I must however be consistent, because I don’t want to be ineffective and unproductive for God.
We must train and rehab diligently, because spiritual progress depends on it.
The radical path of faith is not easy but demands us to persevere, to endure, to push past our weariness as we approach the finish line. The reward is eternal and intangible yet vividly present now.
Maybe these are more encouraging words than “How-to words”.
But one final thought, remember we are not broken, God doesn’t make broken things. We just need to be in the right hands — His. Sometimes that’s all I know how to do.
