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God is working in you. His power is being manifested through you as we cooperate with Him. God uses us as a conduit through which His power can flow. Because of that, the second great thought is that He will use us to carry out His purpose – when we align ourselves with His will, we don’t have to wonder if He will bless it, He will! That should make us want to be about His business and His purpose on the earth. The third thought is that then He will do way more than we could ever desire. His plans for us are so much bigger than we have for ourselves. God wants more for us than even our best imagination could fathom. The fourth great thought it is all done to bring glory. When He is lifted up, all men will be drawn unto Himself. That brings honor and glory to His name.

Let’s not settle for average, mediocre Christianity. Let’s go for God all the way. He’s 100% committed to us, let’s be 100% committed to Him. He is More than Enough to meet all of my needs, and to go beyond and do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think Let’s believe right, live right, talk right, walk right, act right, and be right for God. Let’s be the real thing. Let’s contend for the authentic in every area of our life. As you do, be prepared! Because He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, you may have some positive surprises coming in your life!

Today we’re going to talk about how we are better together. We are commissioned by God to reach out together. Growing spiritually stretches us to reach out to others. It is usually pretty easy to love other believers. We are not just called to love those who already know and love God. We are to love those who are still lost. Love cares about the destiny of others. We say it often and loudly that we want no one from our world to go to hell. We want to make it easy for them to get to heaven. We want it to be easy for them to find and follow God. Here are some ways to make that happen.

In Col 4:5-6, Paul shares four ways we can become intentional about introducing others to Jesus.
1) Be wise in how you act. Actions really do speak louder than words. I know all of you are polite, patient, optimistic and encouraging all the time – it is just others we know who are judgmental, frustrated, arrogant, irritated and rude.
2) Make the most of every opportunity – each day you have opportunities for divine appointments, make yourself available to God daily.
3) Make our words kind and pleasant. People are attracted to love, and love is like honey – besides attracting things, it makes things sticky. We want those who come to Christ to stick. We want lasting fruit, the kind that remains.
4) Give a good answer. People are looking for answers, and we may not know them all, but we have access to the One who does. As we share Christ we can do it in a manner that propels them toward Christ, instead of repels them.

When it comes to sharing the gospel, there is no more powerful tool than hospitality. From the Old Testament example of Abraham welcoming the 3 holy visitors, to Paul’s admonition in the New Testament, we are commanded to be hospitable. What comes naturally to some, is work for many, but should be a natural part of our lives as believers. Entertaining is different from hospitality. We are not inviting people over to impress them, or to make them feel obligated to reciprocate, but merely to show the love of God. It is a great way to make friendships and show acceptance to those who don’t know Christ yet. We are on this earth representing Jesus, and hospitality is a great way to get to know people, and to have them in a home filled with peace, so that the love of God in us, can draw them to the feet of Jesus.

Setting goals is a spiritual principle that makes sense. The Bible tells us to write the vision down and make it plain, so that those who read it can run with it. (Habakkuk 2:2)
So here are the steps for setting and accomplishing goals, one at a time.
1) Write it down – Just use you pen or keyboard to express what you want to accomplish. Small goals are as important as the large ones!
2) Make it plain – Keep it simple. Enough of life is complicated. Keep it easy to read and easy to understand.
3) Read it – Keep it in front of you – on your dashboard in your car, or on your mirror in your bathroom, or on your screen of your computer. Read it as a reminder and as an encouragement to yourself.
4) Run with it – Be a doer! Don’t just think about it, put it into action. Don’t put it off until tomorrow, begin today and do it now.

There is a great sense of accomplishment that comes when you achieve your goals. I am a firm believer in lists, and I even get satisfaction from checking off each item as the day goes by. If improving our spiritual fitness is what we want to do, (I hope it is!) let’s make a clear plan to get us where we want to be. Getting fit spiritually should be an enjoyable experience with great rewards along the way. There can be joy in work it out!

Intro:
Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. I hope you are becoming more and more spiritually fit as we continue this series on Working It Out. Spiritually fit people are a cut above, and they strive for excellence, in word, in deed and in attitudes. They are people who are doers of the Word and not hearers only. That is who we should want to be. Our hearts desire should be to become more spiritually fit day by day. This week, we will talk about accountability and the power of community, along with be people of excellence, and end the week talking about loving in deed. Here is your dailyeword.

Have you ever heard anyone say, don’t set your expectations too high, because you’ll be disappointed? I’ve heard that said before and that statement makes me sad. I love making big goals, and having high aspirations. I want to aim high and go for excellence in life. You’ve probably also heard it said, if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time. I think we, as Christians, need to set a high standard in the world. Not only should we have integrity, character and good manners, we should be a cut above at our jobs, in our work ethic, and in the marketplace. We have the God of the universe living within us, and we sometimes settle for so much less than God’s best for us. One statement I hate hearing is….”it’s good enough”, or “it’ll do.” To me those statements mean we’re not going to do any more than we absolutely have to do. We want to just get by. Our standards should be much better than that! I also hate to hear anyone justify their actions by saying, “Everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn’t I?” Our standard becomes what others are doing, not what God’s Word tells us to do, or God’s standard of excellence and righteousness. I want to encourage you to have high aspirations…dream big, believe big, achieve big, for our Great Big GOD. And keep on growing spiritually day by day.

Sunday
Good fitness starts right now. The good habits you establish now give you a better chance of including fitness in your life for the rest of your life. So have you been outdoors, playing, shooting hoops, kicking a soccer ball, running around, playing football, playing baseball or volleyball? As adults, we think that is kids stuff, but it you have kids, they want and need you to do that with them. Get fit with them. Why not take time to get outside everyday and do something that makes you more fit! Why not GO FOR THE GOLD in your life. Learn how to strive for excellence and persevere to fulfill your dreams of greatness, so that you can be and do all that God has for you. Here’s a poem just for you!.
GOING FOR GOLD
We are running our race
With the goal in our sight
We are working it out
Serving God, with our might
We are aiming real high
We have made it our goal
With our eye on the prize
We are GOING FOR GOLD!
I hope that you know God’s dreams for you are Olympic size (that means really big)! He has a good plan for your life, to give you a future and a hope. Are you preparing for greatness? I hope you are! It is important not only to be strong on the outside, but to be even stronger inside, knowing that God’s power is working in you! Make it your goal, to GO FOR GOLD!

This week we’ve been talking about being spiritually and physically fit. As Christians, we need to prepare and compete like an athlete. You might be thinking that you are not an athlete, so this doesn’t apply to you. Guess what I Tim 4:7 says? You are to exercise yourself to godliness! Athletes exercise, so you are a spiritual athlete! It’s time to get fit! We can strive for mastery over our bodies, by putting them under, and we can be winners in life! It is time to flex your spiritual muscles, and become stronger when adversity comes your way. Refuse to be a complainer. Refuse to be a whiner. Fast negativity of all kinds! Remove words from your vocabulary that bring you to a negative place. Fill up on good stuff so that there is no room for bad stuff. Choose to build and lift. Any words that destroy, steal or damage do not allow to come from your lips. Soldiers exercise hard, and are in training. I’ve never been to boot camp, but talk about being stretched….it is all about finding the tough ones who will endure hardship like a good soldier. When things get hard, it is time to flex your spiritual muscles and use your faith to see circumstances change. Say this with me, All things are possible, God’s grace is sufficient for me, I am well able, It will be worth it, God will supply all of my needs, God will never leave me, I am more than a conqueror. I am becoming physically fit, and spiritually fit to win in life! I am an overcomer! I am working it out physically and spiritually!

This week we’ve been talking about being spiritually and physically fit. As Christians, we need to prepare and compete like an athlete. You might be thinking that you are not an athelete, so this doesn’t apply to you. Guess what I Tim 4:7 say? You are to exercise yourself to godliness! Athletes exercise, so you are a spiritual athlete! It’s time to get fit! We can strive for mastery over our bodies, by putting them under, and we can be winners in life! It is time to flex your spiritual muscles, and become stronger when adversity comes your way. Refuse to be a complainer. Refuse to be a whiner. Fast negativity of all kinds! Remove words from your vocabulary that bring you to a negative place. Fill up on good stuff so that there is no room for bad stuff. Choose to build and lift. Any words that destroy, steal or damage do not allow to come from your lips. Soldiers exercise hard, and are in training. I’ve never been to boot camp, but talk about being stretched….it is all about finding the tough ones who will endure hardship like a good soldier. When things get hard, it is time to flex your spiritual muscles and use your faith to see circumstances change. Say this with me, All things are possible, God’s grace is sufficient for me, I am well able, It will be worth it, God will supply all of my needs, God will never leave me, I am more than a conqueror. I am becoming physically fit, and spiritually fit to win in life! I am an overcomer! I am working it out physically and spiritually!

One of the cutest things I’ve ever seen is a little tiny girl, under 1 year of age, with her physical eye on a ball. Her daddy said, “Sweetheart, put your eye on the ball,” and she did just that. Can we take the Word of God that literally? God does want us to keep our eye focused on Him. We are to keep Him in our sights all the time. We have this tendency to get distracted by the things of this world, and the cares of this world, but we are to have a single eye. We are to be single minded. Let’s stay in focus. I got glasses as a 13 year old, and was just amazed that you could see leaves on trees, and that details of things far away could be clearly in focus. Before I knew any better, I thought everyone saw like my eyes were used to seeing. But get the lens you need in front of your eye, and whala….you see things in a very different light. What can be blurring your focus? Is there something that is distracting you, or making it hard for you to see clearly? Are there perceptions or belief systems that shade or skew your view? Are there confusing points of view that are trying to pry you from the truth that you know? Let’s keep our eye clearly focused, and then let’s keep our eye on the prize. As we work it out, we don’t want to miss out on a reward because we never made it to the finish line. Let’s make it to the finish line, without distractions, keeping our eye on the ball. We can do this! Let’s grow spiritually and walk this path of grace with excellence.

You’ve probably heard the statement, that there is no “I” in team. The very word “team” means that there is more than one person working together. There is great power in teamwork. Once we’re born again, we have joined a great team, the family of God, and it is very cool that we have great benefits for our lifetime because we are on a God’s team. We’ll be talking this week about being spiritually and physically fit. Both are very important because we are on a team, and just like a runner in a relay medley, we don’t want to be the one teammate that holds everyone back, that tires out, or drops the baton. It’s no fun being the weakest link. We desire to be strong. God wants us to be spiritually fit because we have a race to run, and he wants us to obtain the prize at the finish line. We want to be physically fit, because we want to live productively until we make it to the finish line! So let’s be fit for life. How do we do that? There are so many different opinions, and each expert gives different advice. I know one thing that simplifies everything. Eat food that God made as close to how God made them….fruits, vegetables, grains, meat that is as close to nature as possible. The best advice I’ve ever heard is to move more, and eat less. If we consume less calories than we burn, do the math, the excess weight will come off. I know there can be extenuating circumstances, but let’s get fit, spiritually and physically. Then let’s stay, fit for life! It’s possible and I know we can do it! Let’s Work It Out!

We are keeping our focus on getting in shape! Don’t tune me out, I know it sounds like work, but if we want to be strong and fit, we need to get in shape. If we want to run the race well for God, we need to be in shape spiritually. We definitely need to be strong from the inside out. But, both are important. We need to be in shape spiritually. We should know what we believe, why we believe it, and be people who put our faith into action and are doers of the Word. At the same time, we do need to be in shape physically, because if we want to fulfill our purpose on this earth, we need to be healthy enough to keep on ticking. I know most of you would probably be appalled if your pastor stood up in the pulpit with a cigarette in his mouth, puffing away. What is surprising is that we don’t even give it a second thought if he would be 100 pounds overweight and standing in the pulpit. We think smoking is way worse for us. What is interesting is that currently, the largest percentage of deaths in America is a result of being overweight. YIKES!!!! That is so sad. There are more diseases that are a result of overeating than any other indicator. We as a population are just way too fat and I hate to say the word…..lazy. Lest you think I am casting stones, I know how it feels. It is easy to go to food for comfort, or to ease stress, or even to cover up for pain. Because of our busy lifestyles, we often choose convenience food over healthy food. We should be choosing health over convenience.

Back to what we’re talking about….if we want to run the race, and make it to the finish line, not only do we have to be faithful to God in our spiritual life, we need to be faithful to God in our physical life. Let’s set aside those weights that so easily beset us, and run the race, and make it to the finish line, healthy and strong. We can get to heaven sick, but we don’t have too. Let’s be healthy to our dying day. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to get sick when you get older. Let’s be old (experienced!) and healthy, making the most of every day, so that we can live long on the earth and fulfill our personal assignment here doing what God has purposed for us to accomplish. Let’s Work It Out!