"...as working (out) for the Lord..."

I've always had to drag myself off the exercise. It was a necessary torture treatment. But recently, in the spirit of experimentation, I started exercising for the Lord. I don't mean that I've decided it's part of God's law that I must work out three times a week for 30 minutes. I mean that when I go work out, I treat it as a form of worship! It felt like a crazy hair-brained idea when I started, but something magical happened: I started to really love working out! I mean, I really enjoy it! It became the best part of my day! Now, when I do aerobics, I imagine David, the man after God's own heart, dancing before the Lord in II Sam 6. When I feel a little silly doing some routine, I remind myself of David's response to his wife, who thought he was making a fool of himself, “I will become even more undignified than this.” When my body gets tired and wants to quit, I recite I Cor 9:27, “I beat my body and make it my slave.”

I suppose it shouldn't surprise me so much, but when I exercise to the Lord as a form of worship, it's so much more fun, so much easier than when I do it all on my own. The pain is still there, but it's easier to take if I'm working for the Lord.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him… Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men” (Colossians 3:17,23)