But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings…
Malachi 4:2 (NKJV)
In January I joined a gym for the first time in my life. It was not my idea. I don’t like exercising indoors. I like looking up at the big blue sky and smiling at Jesus as I run. Treadmills are not my friends. They don’t shine on me like God does with His sunshine. And the numbers creep forward so slowly, except when I’m doing intervals, then the walking minutes seem much faster than the running minutes! I found the elliptical machine to be more kind than the treadmill.
But I am thankful our little town has a gym, what a blessing to so many people who need to get exercise in winter and year-round for various reasons. There is something inspiring about the gym. Seeing others energetically exercising encourages me to press on, just as when we meet with believers at church every Sunday we are encouraged to press on in our faith. At the fitness center, people are there as part of a diabetes program, walking for their health, lifting weights to ward off osteoporosis, or training for their next Ironman. I joined the gym for the sauna.
My doctor told me in December that I would need surgery because of benign tumors. My oldest son did some research and convinced me to give Jesus and natural remedies a try first. I asked many counselors (Proverbs 15:22): Friends with similar ailments, a naturopathic doctor, essential oil references, and so on, and decided to do it all with much prayer! One of the treatments is to sweat out the toxins that our bodies hold onto in a sauna.
One morning while perspiring on the top bench of this wooden room, I was praying for Jesus to heal me, to sweat out the icky stuff from me, and to shrink the tumors. I thought how much God’s Word is like a sauna. When we climb into it and read of His holiness and our sinfulness, we sweat out our sins. He purifies us in the crucible of His Word!
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10 (NKJV)
And so I prayed, Dear Jesus, please sweat out these toxins from my body, and heal me. And please forgive me, too, sweat out the toxins from my heart, all my sins and pride and selfishness and wrong words and…wash me clean with Your precious blood and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise.
Jeremiah 17:14 (NKJV)
Today’s TEA CUPP: Just as regular exercise is necessary to keep our bodies in shape, regular time in God’s Word is essential to keep our hearts pure. Dear friend, please schedule time daily with Jesus, sharing a CUPP of TEA and reading His Word, using Bible verses to pour your heart out to Jesus in prayer. You might have to set your alarm extra early, but even more than the gym, it is worth it!
For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
1 Timothy 4:8 (NKJV)
…To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 1:5-6 (NKJV)
Scripture from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson