The Spiritual Workout: Working Out What God Works In

There's something fascinating about gym memberships in America. With 40,000 health clubs and 70 million memberships generating billions in revenue, you'd think we'd be the fittest nation on earth. But here's the sobering reality: roughly half of all new gym members quit within five or six months.

January starts with enthusiasm. February shows determination. By March, commitment begins to waver. And by May, the membership card sits forgotten in a wallet, the workout clothes gathering dust in a closet.

Why? Because transformation is hard. It requires discipline, consistency, and the willingness to push through when the initial excitement fades and the soreness sets in.

The spiritual life mirrors this pattern in striking ways.

The Difference Between Decision and Determination

Many people start their faith journey with genuine enthusiasm. They make commitments, join Bible studies, download reading plans, and dive into spiritual practices with real intention. But then life happens. Difficulties arise. The initial excitement fades. And like those abandoned gym memberships, spiritual growth stalls.

This is where a crucial truth emerges: salvation is a gift, but growth takes grit.

Christianity involves more than a single decision to accept Jesus as Savior. It requires an ongoing determination to walk with Him as Lord and Master. Without this understanding, we risk becoming what might be called "pew potatoes"—spiritual spectators who watch things happen but never become doers of the Word.

G.K. Chesterton captured this reality perfectly when he wrote: "The Christian faith has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried."

The Call to Work Out What God Works In

In Philippians 2:12-13, we find a powerful two-verse instruction that addresses this very challenge:

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure."

These verses have puzzled and sometimes troubled readers for centuries. Work out your salvation? Doesn't that contradict the gospel of grace?

Not at all. Paul isn't writing to unbelievers about how to get saved. He's writing to believers—people he calls "beloved" and "saints in Christ Jesus"—about how to grow in faith and maturity. He's addressing sanctification, the ongoing process of becoming more like Christ.

Think of it this way: Paul doesn't say work FOR your salvation or work TOWARD your salvation. He says work OUT your salvation—like working out a math problem you've been given, or working a mine you've inherited, or working a field that belongs to you.

The silver is already in your mine, but it won't extract itself. The field is already yours, but it won't produce a harvest without cultivation. God has already done the saving work through Christ, but growth requires your active participation.

Four Essentials for Spiritual Exercise

First, work out with a trainer. Every accomplished athlete has a coach or personal trainer who inspires, encourages, challenges, and corrects. For the spiritual life, that trainer is Jesus Christ. He said "follow me" nineteen times in the Gospels—not "follow my disciples" or "follow my preachers," but "follow me." When Jesus washed His disciples' feet, He said, "I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you."

The real test of spiritual maturity comes when all your human props are gone. Who do you look to then? Jesus remains present even when human mentors are absent.

Second, work out with full effort. The phrase "work out" in the original Greek means to work something to full completion, maintaining constant energy and effort to finish a task. This isn't self-effort; it's Spirit-enabled effort. It's not about earning but about exercising.

Peter understood this balance. In 2 Peter 1, he writes that God's divine power has given us "all things that pertain to life and godliness." Everything we need has been provided. But then he immediately adds: "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control..."

Spiritual growth is intentional, not accidental. It's the human cooperation with the divine operation.

Third, work out with a personal plan. "Work out your own salvation" means following God's unique plan for your life. A good personal trainer doesn't hand out one-size-fits-all programs. They tailor workouts to individual goals, abilities, and circumstances.

Don't compare yourself to others. Don't copy someone else's routine. When Peter asked Jesus about John's future, Jesus responded, "What is that to you? You follow me." God has a specific plan for you. Exercise the gifts He's given you. Be like Christ, but be yourself in Christ.

Fourth, work out with a fear of failure. "Fear and trembling" doesn't mean living in constant dread. It means having a holy apprehension, a nervous anxiety to do right, a desire not to hurt God's heart or fall short of what He's called you to be.

Like a child who fears disappointing loving parents, we should fear failing to make the most of our one and only life. Be afraid not of change, but of failing to change and grow.

The Beautiful Balance

Here's where the mystery deepens and the beauty emerges: "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure."

While you're working out, God is working in. You can't work something out of you that God hasn't first worked into you. This is divine energy at work within us, enabling our efforts. It's like walking on a moving walkway at the airport—your steps combine with the belt's movement to propel you forward faster than you could go alone.

One extreme reduces Christianity to self-improvement—bootstrap spirituality where you clean up your own act through sheer determination. The other extreme turns it into passive waiting—just "chilling for Jesus" while God does everything. Neither reflects biblical truth.

God's work in us actually increases our responsibility rather than lessening it. But here's the encouraging part: God gives you both the desire and the ability—the want-to and the can-do.

Before you ever do anything in obedience, God has already been working behind the scenes to shape your will, strengthen your heart, and stir your motivation. That very desire to grow, change, and serve? That's God already at work in you.

The Labor You Love

God begins with the will before working on our actions for a beautiful reason: so we'll enjoy what we're doing. He doesn't want reluctant servants trudging through obligations. He wants people who love what they're called to do.

When God plants His desires in your heart, serving Him becomes a labor of love and a labor you love. It still takes time, effort, and work, but it's infused with joy and purpose.

You can change as much as you want to. You can grow as much as you want to. Right now, you can choose to participate in what God wants to work in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

This is the balance of the Christian life: You show up, and God shows off. You apply effort, God supplies energy. You work it out, and God works it in.

The question isn't whether you have a spiritual gym membership. The question is: Are you showing up to work out what God is working in?