A way to experiencing intimacy with God
 Personal fitness industry is a multi-million dollar a year industry.  Fitness gyms are visible at every intersection and television telemarketers use celebrities to endorse a certain brand of fitness machines.  They tell you how attractive it is to have firm abs, thighs, and so on.  They entice you with the latest fitness machines telling us that we have to have that particular machine for us to be fit.  It is true that fitness is important and essential to maintaining a healthy life.  But staying fit is not easy.  It requires discipline.  Even if we have the latest machines, if we don't use it, it won't help us.  Discipline and perseverance is a necessity to any fitness program. 
 There is another kind of fitness that we should be aware of and practice regularly.  It is our spiritual fitness.  I Timothy 4:7-8 says, 'Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.'  The Bible says that physical discipline is of value.  But compared to spiritual discipline, there is little value because the spiritual discipline lasts for all eternity.  I like to point out two important lessons on spiritual discipline from I Timothy 4:7-8.
 First, Bible tells us to train or discipline yourself.  It tells us that disciplining is a personal responsibility.  Many people can pray for us.  But ultimately, it is us who need to take the responsibility for getting in shape.  Disciplining implies perseverance, which means that it will not be easy.  You have to commit to it.  You can't do it half-heartedly.  It also implies practice.  As a musician must practice to master music, as an artist must practice to master the brush-strokes, as an athlete must practice to master the plays, so must believers practice disciplines to master spiritual life.
 Second, the object of this disciplining is to grow in intimacy with God.  How many talented and capable Christians have you known or met?  How many Godly Christians have you known or met?  A Godly person is one who wants to be changed by as he grows in intimacy with God.  Leo Tolstoy once said, 'Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.'  This may be the crux of the problem for today's Christian.
 What are the disciplines that are required in experiencing intimacy with God?  One of them is meditation.  Meditation is hearing God's voice and obeying his word.  Meditation is chewing on the word of God and finding its relevance with me.  The purpose of meditation is to know the presence of God in my life, to know that he walks with me and talks with me.  Another discipline is prayer.  Yet another is fasting. Fasting reminds us that we are sustained by the word of God.  The fourth discipline is the Bible Study.  This is the way we renew our minds.  Romans 12:2 says, 'Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.'  These are the disciplines we must practice, practice, and practice if we are to grow in intimacy with God.  Being spiritually fit is the challenge all Christians should embrace.