Building spiritual muscle
Building physical muscle hurts. Muscles get sore and stiff. They don't grow without effort, sweat, and pain. Same holds true for spiritual muscles. It hurts to grow up spiritually. Exercising faith in the direst of circumstances is hard. Very hard. It hurts. Exercising faith when you see no results is even harder! At least with physical muscles, you see the results! But when you grow spiritual muscle, it is not always as perceptible. But we still have to keep on "flexing," doing "reps." God increases the weight because He knows how much we can bear. Sometimes, you feel like you're going to drop the "barbells" because you feel crushed under the weight of it all. You cry out, "Jesus! Help!" But sometimes, He doesn't lift the weight from you. This, too, is hard. Very hard. He. Wants. To. Strengthen. You. Sure, it would be easier if He would just take the weight off already. But then our muscle wouldn't get as strong