2 Peter 1:8 – With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our master Jesus. (MSG)
I have never been the athletic type who could control the physical body. In my senior yearbook, I was labelled "bookworm of the class". I considered this an honour, because this was where my interest lay. My favourite place in school was the library. I came up with all kinds of excuses to skip physical education and stay in the library instead. My teachers, knowing how "out of place" I was on the athletic field, usually consented.
I've managed to earn a living with my mind, and have been conscientious in my spiritual development. Only now, much later in life, am I realizing that the physical body has needs too. In my battles with arthritis, I'm learning to exercise the body and care for its needs. I'm learning what the term "firm footing" really means, as I try to control my feet to save myself from embarrassing falls.
The book of 2 Peter reminds us that a life of faith needs to have the following good qualities: good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, with each dimension fitting into and developing the others.
Just as our physical body needs regular exercise and discipline to keep us on a "firm footing", the spiritual body needs its nourishment to keep us with the assurance we are on "firm footing" for growing in the faith.
Prayer: Father, grant us the understanding that the physical, mental, and spiritual are all important. Remind us that balance is needed if we are to find the "firm footing" that allows us to live a life filled with faith and power. Amen.
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