You have seen them on TV, in movies, and I know a number of you have even been confronted by them. They look like machines designed for torture and in the beginning they feel like they are serving that very purpose. I’m talking about those machines you meet in health spas and fitness centers. When advertised they are always used by people with glorious bodies that bare little resemblance to our bodies, at least my body.

Let’s face it. We live in a health-oriented culture, and it doesn’t stop with those monster fitness/workout devices. We are constantly besieged with information on health and physical fitness. What we thought was healthy eating yesterday is found to be not healthy today. There are more kinds of vitamin pills, weight control pills and other supplements on the market than can be kept up with except as a full time job and I’m not even sure about it then.

The one thing that almost all health experts do agree on is the importance of exercise. They say it is the lynchpin of good health and should be a big part of whatever else we do, yet it seems that, no matter what we do or how much we exercise, we still continue to age, and at best extend our lives by just a few years.

These thoughts leaped right out at me when I read 1st Timothy 4:8 (NLT) in this weeks’ bible reading. “Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.”

Now, I don’t know how much you believe the varied promises we hear from the many health gurus that are constantly bombarding us with often conflicting advice, but frankly, I disregard most of it. I do, however, put complete trust in God’s word an thus am further encouraged by verse 9 in which Paul tells Timothy, “This is true, and everyone should accept it.”
So if you want good health, lasting good health, the forever kind of good health, then focus on the spiritual. You can even do it while you take a morning walk. It does the soul good.

Learn more about St. James Reformed Church online: www.stjamesreformedchurch.blogspot.com