Is Your Life Profitable?

Some are calling it the “Lost Decade”— net loss in job growth; a decline of middle-class incomes (adjusted for inflation); and a lower Dow Jones average in 2009 than ten years earlier. The only gain was an increase in household debt—117%. After the robust 90’s who could have imagined a decade without profit! You can be sure for the next ten years, our fiscal leaders will be working to make our nation profitable again.

Through the prophet Isaiah, the LORD says “I am the Lord Your God who teaches you to PROFIT and will lead you by the way you should go.” (Is. 48:17). Throughout the centuries men have prayed to their gods to make them profitable! But the profit Isaiah speaks of is not that which the world seeks. The word ‘profit’ comes from the word ‘ascend,’ i.e., to ‘go higher.’ God is saying ‘I will teach you a higher way.’

As aliens on this planet, our home is in a higher place—and we are more concerned about building treasure in heaven than earning profits on earth. Just imagine God as a prudent financial planner who teaches you how to invest your assets to get the best profit. As a wise planner He discerns the path to success—and “the way you should go” is heavenward. Jesus teaches us that denying your own interests and following Him is very profitable. But as any investor will tell you, when considering long-term investing, you’ll need to be patient; and especially Christ’s disciples: their investments won’t fully mature until they reach heaven.

…for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? (Mark 8:36)

Are You Spending Enough Time in God's Gymnasium?

As a young man, I thought little about my physical welfare: I cared little about exercise, and generally abused my body. But in my late thirties, with the birth of my two children, I was awakened to the importance of being physically fit—so, 23 years ago, I joined an athletic club, and have been faithfully exercising my body ever since.

Getting regular exercise is a self-imposed discipline. Do you know that God affirms exercise of the body? But even more, He affirms spiritual exercise.

“Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next” (1 Timothy 4:7-8, New Living Translation).

The words (above) for “training” and “exercise” are the same word in the Greek: the word is “gymnazo,” from which we get our English word “gymnasium.” Every morning before I go to the “gym” for my daily workout, I spend an hour or more reading, studying, and meditating and praying on Scripture. This ‘devotional’ time is GOD’S GYMNASIUM. And this early morning workout in the Word of God is much more profitable to me than my physical fitness agenda will ever be. I am exercising my spirit!

Daily exercise, whether spiritual or physical, is a choice. And, yes, it is hard to do: that’s why it is called “discipline!” The writer of Hebrews encourages us with these words:

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained [gymnazo] by it, afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (12:11).

What about you? Do you work out? Are you getting enough exercise every day?