Atrophy

"Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops."—2 Timothy 2:3-6

I am not sure if you know what atrophy is, but for those of us who have broken an arm or leg and worn a cast for a while, you know it first hand. Atrophy is the steady decline in the effectiveness of muscle due to underuse. Often we experience severe atrophy when we wear a cast for an extended period. Muscle underuse causes the tissue and cells to deteriorate and breakdown.

Spiritual atrophy is a severe problem—a spiritual breakdown from spiritual inaction. And we address this by "engaging the battle, living within predetermined boundaries, and engaging the work that needs to be done." While we can quickly turn to blame in spiritual inaction, we have to stop the fault-finding. We already tried fault-finding in the Garden, and God still confronted us with accountability. At some point, we have to take responsibility. The strategic place to begin the war with spiritual atrophy is against our enemy—apathy.

DO THIS: Fight the impulse against spiritual inaction.

PRAYER: God, show me to today how to fight the battle. Give me an opportunity to war with my apathy.