Professional athletes know it. Amateur athletes know it. Bodybuilders know it. Fitness experts know it. If you want to build physical strength and endurance, you will experience a certain degree of pain. But this is not pain for pain’s sake.
Our muscles are created so that they respond to vigorous exercise with microscopic tears in the muscle fiber. This muscle damage signals repair activity in which new fibers are created, thus increasing the number and thickness of our muscle fibers. Certain hormones such as growth factor, pituitary and thyroid stimulate muscle growth and protein synthesis that allows more glucose to enter muscle cells and results in increasing energy and endurance. This cycle of exercise, muscle damage and muscle repair over time produces larger and stronger muscles.
The pain or soreness we experience in our muscles is actually due to the repair process that occurs after we exercise. Critical to supporting a healthy repair process is alternating activity and recovery periods. Every athlete knows that you don't exercise the same set of muscles day after day, because you can cause yourself serious injury. After exercise, muscles need time to repair, and therefore it's important to alternate periods of exercise with periods of rest.
It's also important to support the recovery and repair process by getting sufficient sleep, drinking plenty of water, feeding your muscles by eating lots of protein and nutrient dense foods, and persisting in your exercise efforts. Results take time to show outwardly, so it is also helpful to keep in mind a picture of yourself with those more well-developed muscles you desire.
While we understand this process of damage and repair in muscle healing and building, we often forget that this is a universal principle that applies to all areas of our lives. Challenges in any aspect of our life, our health, relationships, finances, career etc. produce pain and stress. Whether our pain is physical or emotional, involves disappointment or a sense of loss, we need to remember that we can choose to allow the healing process to take us to a stronger and better place.
God makes it very clear in Scripture that He is a healer. He wants to take us through illness, pain of all types, and our difficulties and make us stronger, and more confident through our healing. He has built all types of natural healing processes into our bodies and the world around us.
His love extends beyond the natural healing processes, however. In Isaiah 53:4–5 we are told: "Surely Jesus took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken and smitten by God. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was wounded for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed." He loves us so much, that He wants to ensure that we will always have access to healing no matter what we are facing.
The same principles we use to build strong muscles, also apply in obtaining our healing with God. It's important that we rest in confident trust in God's love and promises to us. We need to feed on the spiritually dense nutrition of God's Word and to drink deeply of His Holy Spirit by inviting Him into our lives. Finally, just as we can see ourselves with our buff body when we are building muscle, we need to keep a vision of ourselves as a whole, complete, healed person through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM. We will be discussing more on obtaining our healing from Father God, as we continue in our current series, "What's the H in HRock Church?"
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