Cheri's Blog

Making Fitness an Act of Worship

making fitness an act of worship

Making Fitness an Act of Worship

by Cheri Strange, Ph.D.

Welcome to the Stirring Faith Podcast 

Hi there. Cheri Strange, here. Finally. September showed up and we have never looked more forward to the return of the Starbuck’s Pumpkin Latte. The jury is still out for what badness it promises to usher in, but change is welcomed by most of us. The problem is that we have been experiencing something so radically different for the last six months, we are all out of wack. For many of us, especially on the physical side. There have been too many opportunities to eat throughout the day and not enough plus the lacking enthusiasm to burn off those extra calories. Does it matter? I mean is it a spiritual matter or can we just give up and blame it on Corona? We will tackle these questions and more in this episode, Making Fitness an Act of Worship.

I’m so glad you are here. Thanks for listening.

And While you are here — Don’t forget about The Show Notes.

Just fill out the form and you will begin receiving the latest notes straight in your inbox. But let me say this. Currently, I am running in slow motion on this. With Corona and my life all out of whack -(have I mentioned that six of my kids are at home ALL THE TIME. Every. Moment. Of. Every. Day.)- a few parts of life are still not running as smoothly as normal, and this is one element that seems to pile up.

How Awesome is Show Notes?

If you are already a subscriber to the She Yearns Updates, you will begin receiving a link to a pdf. But this is different. By signing up here, you will ONLY RECEIVE Show Notes for the podcast. There is nothing to download unless there is some sort of bonus offered.

You can also use this resource to take with you to coffee with a friend or sit with a small group and talk about the topic together. It’s a quick low prep to no prep way to have a deep discussion about relevant Gospel-centered topics that matter to your everyday lives. So don’t wait! Sign up today. If you enjoyed today’s episode, 5 Ways to Get Unstuck, Joy in the Hard Things is a really applicable episode for what we are experiencing right now. You can find it here if you are interested.

You can now check out the latest episodes from iTunes, GooglePlay, Stitcher, iHeartRADIO, or BuzzSprout. Just click on the links below! As always, you can scroll down and listen right here!

soul care

soul care

And if you have not already become a subscriber to the podcast, allow me to invite you to become one for the She Yearns Podcast by going to any of the providers and signing up for the RSS feed to have it automatically updated to your device! It’s basically ONE CLICK! And it doesn’t use any extra memory and really makes life easier.

If you enjoyed this episode, Making Fitness an Act of Worship, or found it helpful, please leave a comment or review in your hosting provider service! We cannot do it without you! The only way the word goes out further is with your help. Please share it as you feel the leading.

Thank you for listening,

 

 

 

If you would like to read a blog version of this podcast, check out this link.

Make Fitness an Act of Worship

Make fitness an act of worship

Make Fitness an Act of Worship

by Cheri Strange, Ph.D.

September is here, and that means lots of things are beginning to look different. And different is good, for most of us, even if we don’t know how it’s going to turn out. Across the past six months, you an I have been home a lot. Home, with all our people, possibly more than ever before. We might call it The Staycation That Would Not End. On the lighter side, the saying goes that most of us will emerge from our forced staycation as drunks, monks, hunks, or chunks.

Honestly, a couple of months into the quarantine, I went to my first outside girls gathering, and this small group of women stood around confessing their leanings toward the chunk designation. Apparently, none of their pants fit because no one was wearing pants (or regular clothes) and all they had been doing was eating. I get it. Corona has not been kind to us. So today, I want to take those predictions by the horns by talking about how you and I can make fitness an act of worship.

Now before you stop reading, I’m not a health fanatic or about to point you to holy yoga. Keep your sugar, your coffee, your M&Ms in your purse, or your wheat germ with kale smoothie streaks. I simply want to lead us through some guiding principles that demonstrate Jesus followers have a responsibility for their bodies. How to make fitness an act of worship is something we should absolutely be aiming toward.

Five Guiding Principles to Make Fitness an Act of Worship

1. Remember it is a holy responsibility

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 1 Cor 3:16

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Cor 6:19-20

The moment I became a follower in Christ, my physical body took up the residence of the Holy Spirit. Now, unlike those in our society, I am not supposed to be trying to get the attention of other people to gaze at me and my body when I am out and about, or by my social media posts. It matters not whether I can pull off a bikini successfully or not. That is not the issue. Paul is reminding us here twice, that it’s not my body to flaunt or accentuate. And it’s not yours.

Filling my body with bags of M&Ms and Oreos and cheese fries until I pop is not on the table, either. But starving it half to death and exercising four hours a day in order to gain the approval of others or even self-gratification is also out of place. These, my friend, are the things you and I do left to ourselves.

We neglect to keep in the front of our minds who is living in us and the gravity of that reality. Ours is a holy responsibility because the spirit within us is holy. Making fitness an act of worship, rather than a chore we need to accomplish, will help us to keep in mind the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

2. Remember the Christian life is a life of discipline

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 1 Cor 9:24-27

Again, Paul is talking to the same audience. He continues to use this same physical comparison of the body and exercise with the disciplines of the Christian life. It is not as if you throw caution to the wind and simply embrace your spiritual side at the expense of your physique (barring medical limitations).

The tragic reality most of the time is that we simply don’t like the discipline of it. We don’t want to run or walk, or hop, skip, or plank. Why? Because it’s hard.

In light of what Paul has just said, it seems the expectation is that we will do both. We will exhibit self-control to discipline the temple of our bodies, AND we will aim toward self-control and discipline to keep our wants and desires and impulses under control spiritually as well. He’s issuing it as one and the same mentality. It’s aiming and disciplining. You and I need a plan and the will to execute that plan. In the Christian life, we cannot get away from these necessities for growth. To make fitness an act of worship is just part of the Christian walk.

3. Your Fitness is not just about you

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Hebrews 12:10-13

At first glance, these verses seem all about the individual. But the message of Hebrews is one of community. I am responsible for you and you for me. The writer here admits that no discipline is fun. But it’s necessary because it changes us from the inside out. But more than that, your changing impacts those entrusted to you, so don’t make it harder than it needs to be. The writer is charging us to make the paths straight so others can follow. The picture given is that of wagon wheel ruts that the next person down the road tries to follow to keep them on the right path.

That’s you, my friend. So your discipline matters. Your fitness as worship matters beyond whether you feel like it or not, or whether you value it or not. You are creating paths for others. So let us make them worth following.

4. It builds our endurance

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Hebrews 12:1

In other words, our discipline in this area, as worship, builds our own endurance so that we can do more and greater things. It’s just like when I got this hair-brained idea to run the Oklahoma City Marathon. (A marathon is 26.2 miles.) I had never completed more than six miles in my life and that had only happened once. (Incidentally, I ended up doing not only that one, but another, and a couple of halves.) I am a squatty body, non-athlete. There are two reasons I find this example so powerful when I think about endurance.

  1. I never thought I could have done it. I went from couch potato to finisher, and all it took was sheer discipline. No ability. Zero physical prowess. No special traits coming into the situation. Just doing the deeds. Day after day. And I did it. Me. The squatty body, non-athlete. Honestly, it did so much for me, and my understanding of what I can accomplish lies beyond my actual ability, I wish I had done it years before. Sister, you have no idea what you can do until you put your discipline to work. No, you cannot hop out and run a marathon today. But by training and showing up, you can. The Christian life is so much like training for a long, long race that looks impossible to complete. It is. But if we show up every day, put those shoes on, seeking God to renew us, and transform us, we will build that endurance.
  2. The second element is a picture I will never forget. When you begin the race, it’s early in the morning. Dark. Chilly. Everyone lines up long before the gun fires starting the race, so there is a lot of standing and waiting in your spot. You,  along with literally ten thousand other people. Everyone is wearing sweat pants, sweatshirts, gloves, earmuffs, hats, extra layers. Scarfs. But when that race begins, within the first five miles, people begin throwing off all that garb. The roads are strewn with clothes, where people have thrown off what they had on. They don’t need it to run. That’s what the writer is talking about. Throwing off everything and anything that is going to slow you down, because finishing well is the goal and it’s a long, long race. He knows you are never going to make it if you are carrying extra stuff.  To make fitness an act of worship helps us put these ideas together. It’s one and the same pursuit. What is keeping you from running your best race today? What is slowing you down? The encouragement here is to get rid of it. You don’t need it. You won’t make it unless you throw it aside.

From one non-athlete turned finisher – to you, wherever you line up on this–the path from couch potato to finisher–from louse to experiencing the disciplined life you long for–is often a matter of putting on your shoes and showing up. Building that endurance. So that tomorrow – you can go just a little further. Because it’s a long, long race – and it’s yours to win.

5. Your life should look different than your neighbor’s

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. 1 Cor 6:12

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2

Your fitness may look different than your neighbor’s. And it should because you are doing yours as an act of worship. Right?

Maybe it will be the clothes you wear. It could be the music. Or the language you use and the joking you share. For my daughter, an obvious clash has been clothing. Often she has been the only girl on the team wearing a shirt. Yes. A shirt. Everyone else is wearing a sports bra, only. Even when we are not monitoring her behavior, her practice is the same. She simply does not feel comfortable. Why? Because her body is not her own. She is being transformed rather than conformed by her surroundings.

Do our decisions slap our culture in the kisser in ways that leave us having to make daily choices against our natures driven toward comfort and delectable delicacies, beach-lounging, and our need to be found beautiful? Why, YES. But we are not our own. We were bought with a price.

What are You Suggesting?

Today,  I am not suggesting that if your BMI exceeds the normal range or you tip the scales either way, or you get winded going up and down a flight of stairs, or you decide to train for a difficult race that requires more focus that you are living in sin. No. Nothing like that.

What I am attempting to suggest is that you and I take Paul’s message and the writer of Hebrew’s encouragement to heart. That we begin to live as if the Holy Spirit really resides within us. To believe today that these bodies of ours that can take up so much of our attention- moving our focus OFF OF WORSHIP, are truly instruments OF worship. And to make strides to move them back into this rightful position.

Helpful Resources to Make Fitness an Act of Worship

As you go on this week, I want to provide you with a few resources to help you get on your way.

  1. Walking App: BetterMe., It provides a profile, goal weight, water intake, workouts, step tracking, etc. FREE.
  2. Plant Nanny. It gives you a plant to water which grows based upon how many glasses of water you consumer per day.
  3. On-line Accountability Group. Find an accountability group even while we are social distancing. My friend, Meredith, hosts one on Instagram. I’ve known her since she was hardly an adult. Since then she has had three kids and moved all over the country and has become a fitness coach. She provides things like menus, workout plans, accountability, and encouragement, from a Christian perspective. You can find her on Instagram @my.faithandfitness
  4. Spotify. I find it so much easier to worship when I am literally moving to music that moves my thoughts and heart toward God. I have created a walking playlist and I am sharing it with you today. It has about 30 minutes of Christian music you can walk to. Just click on the link and it will take you to the playlist. Download it to your device and you are all set. But you MUST have a Spotify account.
  5. Change/Take Your Plate. Try this if you are struggling with your food intake, as in, it’s too much. (That’s most of us.) Here is a trick I pickup up a long time ago that has really helped me through the decades. When at home, eat on smaller plates. When you’re out, plan on taking a portion home. Decide before you go, that you will not finish your meal. Generally, for most Americans, we struggle with portion size. It’s not that we eat too little, we binge on too much. No one needs all the food restaurants put on our plates. In fact, Time magazine recently reported on a study finding that 92% of restaurant meals provided more calories than is recommended for the average person and that the portion sizes were “obscene.” We often carry that bad vibe home, adding too much to the rest of our meals. Get a cute little plate you love. Or a set of them. Make it your dinner plate. Plan on a doggy bag if you get food out. And you will be on your way to increasing your portion control and focusing the fit-ness of your temple on someone greater than yourself.

make fitness an act of worshipYou are not alone.

Remember, don’t do this alone. We are here for each other. You and I are the Body of Christ – and within that Body (capital B) is a collection of bodies hosting the Holy Spirit within. May we think more intentionally about how to make fitness an act of worship every single day of our lives. May we talk about it, sharing, helping, and nurturing each other, even at a distance as we go. You, my friend, can do this.

For His Glory,

 

 

If you would like to listen to a version of this post, you can find it on the Stirring Faith Podcast here.

Have you found Cheri on YouVersion? Over half a million readers have subscribed to her plans. Check these out.


if you like make fitness you might like flourish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t forget to check out the Stirring Faith Podcast for more encouragement.

stronger you

Five Essentials for Prioritizing Your Time

Five Essentials to Prioritizing Your Time

Five Essentials to Prioritizing Your Time

by Cheri Strange, Ph.D.

Welcome to the Stirring Faith Podcast 

Hi there. Cheri Strange, here. We are all over new beginnings and getting our groove on in terms of prioritizing our time. Last week we began a focus on exactly this with Prioritizing Your Time, (Part I). How to get it done and what exactly should be on the agenda is the issue at hand. We are continuing our focus today, searching the Word of God for Five Essentials for Prioritizing Your Time.

I’m so glad you are here. Thanks for listening.

And While you are here — Don’t forget about The Show Notes.

Just fill out the form and you will begin receiving the latest notes straight in your inbox. But let me say this. Currently, I am running in slow motion on this. With Corona and my life all out of whack -(have I mentioned that six of my kids are at home ALL THE TIME. Every. Moment. Of. Every. Day.)- a few parts of life are still not running as smoothly as normal, and this is one element that seems to pile up.

How Awesome is Show Notes?

If you are already a subscriber to the She Yearns Updates, you will begin receiving a link to a pdf. But this is different. By signing up here, you will ONLY RECEIVE Show Notes for the podcast. There is nothing to download unless there is some sort of bonus offered.

You can also use this resource to take with you to coffee with a friend or sit with a small group and talk about the topic together. It’s a quick low prep to no prep way to have a deep discussion about relevant Gospel-centered topics that matter to your everyday lives. So don’t wait! Sign up today. If you enjoyed today’s episode, 5 Ways to Get Unstuck, Joy in the Hard Things is a really applicable episode for what we are experiencing right now. You can find it here if you are interested.

You can now check out the latest episodes from iTunes, GooglePlay, Stitcher, iHeartRADIO, or BuzzSprout. Just click on the links below! As always, you can scroll down and listen right here!

soul care

soul care

And if you have not already become a subscriber to the podcast, allow me to invite you to become one for the She Yearns Podcast by going to any of the providers and signing up for the RSS feed to have it automatically updated to your device! It’s basically ONE CLICK! And it doesn’t use any extra memory and really makes life easier.

If you enjoyed this episode, Five Essentials to Prioritizing Your Time, or found it helpful, please leave a comment or review in your hosting provider service! We cannot do it without you! The only way the word goes out further is with your help. Please share it as you feel the leading. Five essentials to prioritizing your time

Thank you for listening,

Prioritizing Your Time

prioritizing your time

Prioritizing Your Time

by Cheri Strange, Ph.D.

Welcome to the Stirring Faith Podcast 

Hi there. Cheri Strange, here. Thank you for stopping by. I am your host for the Stirring Faith Podcast. It’s here. I can almost smell the pencil shavings as I write. All those new school supplies being thrust into new backpacks and Wal-Mart bags readied for some weird likeness of normalcy for 2020. But August brings more than new beginnings. It ushers in that old familiar sense of never being able to get it all done. That’s us. List Makers who never finish what we start. The hovering question is always about how to get done what needs to be done and let the rest go. That’s where we will focus today, searching the Bible for Five Essentials for Prioritizing Your Time.

I’m so glad you are here. Thanks for listening.

And While you are here — Don’t forget about The Show Notes.

Just fill out the form and you will begin receiving the latest notes straight in your inbox. What could be better?

How Awesome is Show Notes?

If you are already a subscriber to the She Yearns Updates, you will begin receiving a link to a pdf. But this is different. By signing up here, you will ONLY RECEIVE Show Notes for the podcast. There is nothing to download unless there is some sort of bonus offered.

You can also use this resource to take with you to coffee with a friend or sit with a small group and talk about the topic together. It’s a quick low prep to no prep way to have a deep discussion about relevant Gospel-centered topics that matter to your everyday lives. So don’t wait! Sign up today. If you enjoyed today’s episode, 5 Ways to Get Unstuck, Joy in the Hard Things is a really applicable episode for what we are experiencing right now. You can find it here if you are interested.

You can now check out the latest episodes from iTunes, GooglePlay, Stitcher, iHeartRADIO, or BuzzSprout. Just click on the links below! As always, you can scroll down and listen right here!

soul care

soul care

And if you have not already become a subscriber to the podcast, allow me to invite you to become one for the She Yearns Podcast by going to any of the providers and signing up for the RSS feed to have it automatically updated to your device! It’s basically ONE CLICK! And it doesn’t use any extra memory and really makes life easier.

If you enjoyed this episode, Prioritizing Your Time, or found it helpful, please leave a comment or review in your hosting provider service! We cannot do it without you! The only way the word goes out further is with your help. Please share it as you feel the leading. prioritizing Your Time

Thank you for listening,

Becoming a Stronger You

becoming a stronger you

Becoming a Stronger You

by Cheri Strange, PhD.

Are you getting outside to get fresh air, with a mask or otherwise? Chances are you are not doing a lot of in-person shopping, ride airplanes or doing the normal summer stuff you have done in the past. But are you taking the time to take in the scenery and exercise?

This is something I have been doing by myself, sometimes with my main man, and often with a friend of mine. Due to some health issues and medicine adjustments, neither she nor I are moving at our normal paces. I feel like my body has gone to the dogs. So much so, I took more aggressive measures by committing Hebrews 12:11-13 to memory to get me back on track.

Hebrews 12:11-13

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

There are many days, I will admit, I don’t want to engage, even though my hands feel more drooping than ever, and my knees are clearly weak. But out the door we go. My friend and I get moving, even when we don’t feel like it, and when the going is painful. Boy, do I need these verses to be true for me PHYSICALLY.

Not so. These words hold more meaning than an example for attaining physical vigor. They are focused on a person becoming a stronger version of themselves, from the inside out. More than a lesson in how to cowgirl up, this is a work of the Holy Spirit moving in and through our lives. In fact, there are at least five reasons the Bible offers for you becoming a stronger you.

A Stronger You Reason #1 – Your eyes Must Remain on the Prize

Sometimes, our hands are drooping and our knees are weak because of discouragement, possibly disappointments, or losses. It could even be the season we are going through, or our personality.

There is a tendency in these situations and seasons to question God’s faithfulness. We wonder if He will really come through? Those myriad “What if?” questions begin to surface and we tend to shrink back. This causes our hands to stop working. And our prayers suffer. I mean, if we are not really sure God is going to come through, then what’s the point, right?

Until you and I decide we are going to trust God with everything, taking it all before Him in prayer, we will remain weak. Unless we keep our eyes on the prize, believing the righteousness of Jesus has been given us through his work of justification making us heirs to go before the throne in confidence our hands will continue to droop and our knees crumble beneath us. But if we can lift our hands and strengthen our knees in believing prayer, we will become a stronger version of us.

A Stronger You Reason #2 – The Christian Must Exercise

Just like in our physical lives, the message here is that the Christian is expected to be about doing. We serve. It’s not how we are justified–forgiven from our sin, nor can we earn more of God’s affection based on what we do. But you and I will remain weak in our faith if we do not exercise it—by not taking God at his Word and doing what He asks. We will remain feeble if we fear the unknown and refuse to trust Him. All of these issues need to be put aside when it comes to becoming stronger.

What should you do? What action should you take next? Those are questions for you to pray over and seek out His leadership in your life. But there will be actions to come. Your faith will be exercised. That is for certain.

A Stronger You Reason #3 – You are needed for Hand-Lifting

Becoming a Stronger YouHelping you become a stronger you in God’s economy is not simply about you. It about Them. You are needed to help those around you. This particular passage was written to believers in Christ. The writer has been encouraging them over and over throughout the book of Hebrews NOT to neglect their faith. He has encouraged them to embrace the truth of Jesus Christ rather than return to the traditions that had weighted them down before the gospel. You having an exercised faith–a faith that is working out regularly, with knees that are bent in prayer, presenting a stronger you, is necessary to help lift up the hands of those around you.

What about You?

How can your faith become strengthened and at the same time, help someone else? Talk to someone about something God has done that was an answer to your prayer. George Mueller, was an English preacher in the 1800’s who started an orphanage because he believe God asked him to do it. But Mueller didn’t want it to be a sponsored effort. He didn’t want anyone to pay him a salary and he never wanted to ask anyone for money. Instead he committed himself to a stronger George. Every day, he went before the Lord with specifics. Sometimes there was nothing for breakfast and someone would either show up with the food or the money or the supplies. Every time, God provided for what grew to over 750 children and multiple orphanages. God helped George Mueller become a stronger Mueller to help lift up the hands of those he served, as well as those who have heard his testimony of God’s faithfulness.

When we moved to Houston three years ago, we looked at over forty houses. It was an act of God that landed us where we reside, and it has provided a domino effect of how He was clearly bringing us to this exactly place. One specific impact was to meeting a young teen girl who befriended my daughter, devastated by the move. They became fast friends and the girl ended up at our house many afternoons. Over time we grew to love her and see her come to believe that Jesus could be her Savior, forgiving her and loving her. She’s even in many of our family pictures.

That’s the kind of work God does. There is a greater agenda at steak. He strengthens you and me so that we can help others lift their hands.

A Stronger You Reason #4 – You Must Make the Path Straight

Not only are we to lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees, but there is a word about our feet and the path we take.

and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed

According to the Greek language, it’s not really a difference between straight and crooked, but rather conveying the idea of making a path that is easy for someone behind you to follow, Think  wagon-ruts or when you are walking down a road in the snow. The only way you might be able to see the path is to follow the person’s trail in front of you. There is no room for you to go off trying weird off-road wanderings.

Do not miss the point. God is not saying the straight path has no thrills. I assure you it does. But you are needed to lead. Allow this very important point to settle all over you. You are needed to become a stronger version of you because you are needed here. Make the path straight. See that it is understandable. Make it so that others can follow. Be helpful. Don’t make it all about you. And you will find your stronger you.

A Stronger You Reason #5 – A Stronger You Finishes with a Team

A stronger you doesn’t quit. The stronger you encourages others not to give up, either. Honestly, at first glance, these verses appear to be about the individual. I just thought the writer of Hebrews was being very specific, addressing personal believers. (I should have known better because that is not the message of Hebrews as a whole, at all.)

Instead, the message is that we are in this together. I am responsible for you. That’s the message if you go back to Chapter 10. So, it makes perfect sense when you look closely to find how much this message speaks to the individual AND their impact as they move out to those entrusted to them.

so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed

What does that even mean?

It means that when there are those around us who have fallen away, or maybe are wavering on matters of faith, they should not be FURTHER confused or led astray by us. We should not do or say anything that would make it worse, but rather bring clarity, bring wholeness, and help draw them closer rather than push them away from Jesus “so that what is lame may be healed.”

This is why your strength of faith, your devotion to prayer, is so essential. Who you are matters. What you do matters. Your life, in the yada, yada, yada daily grind that you don’t believe has much significance, can impact a life in a way you may never know. You and I are not always privileged to see the Big Picture. We must take God at His Word. His Word to you is that you are essential. And a stronger version of you is what He so desires. He want nothing less than to know you more intimately because He loves you more deeply than I can articulate.

I encourage you to memorize these three verses. (Find these and more like it on my Insta Page Under Lock Screens. Download for personal use.)

Pray sincerely. Get outside. Grab a friend. Have some good conversation. Encourage each other in the deeper things of life. Become a stronger you so that they can become a stronger them.

If you would like to LISTEN to a version of this blog, you can try The Stirring Faith Podcast, HERE.

Thanks for coming along,

 

 

Don’t miss the latest reading plan releases by Cheri on YouVersion! Click the IMAGES to check them out on the YouVersion App for FREE.