Did you know a person can lift weights regularly and not get stronger if they don’t eat properly? When a person lifts regularly and doesn’t get stronger, it is often a sign they have a nutrient deficiency and need to eat more protein.
This same concept is true spiritually. Sometimes Jesus puts us in situations and adds a little more weight on the bar than normal so we can discover what we cannot currently handle? Why does He do this? So we’ll see our need to feed on His word so we can get stronger. One of the best examples of this is found in Mark 4:35-40:
35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”
Prior to this event Jesus spent all day teaching His disciples about the word of God. He taught them about how the word was like seed, which reproduced after its own kind. He then gave the disciples a test. He put them in a boat and gave them seed. What was the seed?
“Let us cross over the other side.”
Jesus’s statement was seed that would cause the boat to go to the other side. After He made this statement, He got into the boat and went to sleep because He expected the boat to get to the other side. After He went to sleep, however, a storm arose and His disciples panicked. They saw the wind and waves and thought they were going to die. This revealed their spiritual nutrient deficiency.
Why do I say they had a nutrient deficiency? Jesus put the disciples into the boat when He knew a storm was coming in order to to build their spiritual muscle. He wanted them to trust His word and resist the attack of the enemy. They were supposed to speak to the storm and command it to cease! When they didn’t, Jesus did and then rebuked them for their lack of faith.
This process of putting the disciples in the boat so they could use the word and resist against the storm is similar to how a weight-lifter gets strong. He puts weight on the bar and pushes it up. His resistance against the weight and gravity as he pushes the weight up is what builds muscle. In the same way, our resistance against the attacks of the enemy build spiritual muscle.
In the natural, when a person doesn’t eat properly, they will struggle to push up the additional weight needed to build muscle. A good personal trainer, however, will encourage them to eat more protein as protein is the nutrient most responsible for building muscle. Once they make the dietary adjustment and eat more protein, they give their body the building blocks necessary to build muscle and get stronger.
Spiritually, when Jesus puts us in situations where we cannot lift the weight on the bar, this is a sign we need to eat some spiritual protein. In the disciples’ case, it would have been a good time to feed on what Jesus taught them that day about the word as well as the miraculous power of God. These would be the building blocks necessary to build the spiritual muscle they needed.
I want to encourage you, the next time God puts you in a situation where you cannot lift the weight on the bar, don’t condemn yourself. That’s not going to help. Go feed on faith scriptures. Faith comes by hearing, not having heard. The same way we must eat every day to have strength for the day in the natural, we must do the same in the spiritual. Yesterday’s manna isn’t enough. Feed daily on Jesus’s word and you will become strong and overcome any spiritual nutrient deficiency you may have.
I hope this article encouraged you. If you’d like to learn more, check out this message I recently taught at Grace Life Church.
