If you want to get stronger, you lift weights or do calisthenics. No matter your technique or approach, the process is the same. You place the muscles you want to target under focal stress, under tension, beyond what they are comfortable with. In fact, bodybuilders know that you have to push the muscle to failure to make the biggest gains in strength and hypertrophy.
It isn’t the failure itself, but the moment right before failure, where the muscle is at its maximum capacity, that generates this benefit. This stress doesn’t just challenge those muscles; it actually creates tiny tears within the muscle belly.
Then you rest and recover, and the miraculous regenerative process built into your cellular physiology enters that space, and these tears heal stronger than they were before. This is what produces muscular power and growth.
THE CONCEPT OF TIME UNDER TENSION
Modern understanding of resistance training emphasizes the concept of time under tension. The idea is to prolong the duration of the muscle strain. Picture the guy quickly pumping the weight up and down to get through the set. This is what not to do.
Instead of rushing through the process, you increase the time under tension by letting the weight off the muscle in a slow, sustained, and controlled fashion. This is now known to greatly enhance the benefits of any given lift.
The utility of resistance training goes way beyond being bigger and stronger. Your entire body experiences metabolic changes at a cellular level: systemic reductions in inflammation, increased insulin sensitivity, improved lipid health profile, enhanced hormonal and endocrine signaling and repair, optimized mitochondrial function, and many others. For a deeper dive, consider these resources 1 and 2.
SPIRITUAL STRENGTH THROUGH RESISTANCE
People generally recognize at least some of the benefits of resistance training and intuitively understand the intentional strain that this requires. Many do it quite willingly.
Gyms are packed with people who put their muscles through this on purpose every day. What people often do not realize is that spiritual strength and endurance are built through a remarkably similar process.
You get stronger when you are challenged, stressed, and pushed to your limit - when you spend time under tension.
The small tears in your character, in your perspectives, in your preconceptions, and the hidden parts of yourself can then be filled, healed, and restored by God, through the Holy Spirit, but only when they are challenged enough to create these tears.
"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Romans 5:3-5 NLT
Just like weightlifting, it is when you are pushed to failure, when you break, that God fills the fractures and reshapes you in ways you cannot otherwise experience.
"Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8 NIV
Recognize that just like weightlifters have to rest and recover, you must turn to God and allow Him to repair and rebuild you. If they consistently return to lifting without sufficient recovery time, they will gradually lose strength and sustain injuries.
"He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:29-31 NLT
If you keep pushing and try to get through on your own strength, you will see diminishing returns and find yourself further from God.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
This is by design. You must choose to seek His restoration. The world will offer you numbing agents and distractions, but only He can provide the recovery you need.
"Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT
FINDING PURPOSE IN THE PRESSURE
No sane person willfully puts themselves through tragedy or hardship. These are experiences that come without your request, permission, or desire. Understand that God wants you to grow. He wants you to be stronger by knowing Him more closely and learning to lean on Him.
I'll never forget the worst phone call of my life. It's been over 13 years. Matt Whitehead was more than my best friend. It sounds cliché, but he was my brother in so many ways. He died suddenly on his honeymoon, with no identified medical explanation. To this day the words echo in my head from time to time: "He's gone, Eric, he's gone." My legs gave out and I fell to the ground. The emotional pain was so intense. Tears well up just writing this. On the morning of his funeral I bought my first cross necklace and have worn it ever since. I was very young in my faith at that time. Looking back, that was a small step of leaning into my relationship with God in a way I had not done before. I opened my heart to Jesus that day. Without fully realizing it, I was looking specifically to Christ in the midst of all the unanswered questions. Not because I necessarily expected an explanation, but because I knew that somehow He was the solution to the tension of not understanding, to the strain of the pain and the loss.
He wants to build your character, to break apart the things that hold you back or drag you down, boil them to the surface, and rid them from who you are. This is why we are here. That is what this life is designed to do.
"So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." 1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT
The world exists as a space that gives us the balance of a separation that causes tragedy and suffering, with enough access to Him that we can find Him, be restored by Him, and ultimately come to know Him.
We are not here to be comfortable, but to be uncomfortable in ways that forge a bond with God. Heaven holds in store eternal comfort beyond your imagination, and it’s coming all too quickly.
Now is the time to grow. Try not to rush through the process of dealing with difficult circumstances. Embrace your time under tension and do not be ashamed of your failures. Understand that God allows challenges in your life in order to grow aspects of who you are. To create these tears — to break and reshape you — because He loves you.
TRAINING ON THE DAYS YOU FEEL WEAK
Unlike weightlifting, there isn’t a gym you can walk into, challenge these spiritual systems, reap the benefits, and head home or go on with your day. There are some things you can do, and that’s what spiritual fitness is all about. Prayer, meditation, worship, service, giving. Click here and here for some resources.
If you are active in spiritual fitness, in practicing your faith, you probably notice that some days these things come easily. There is an immediate sense of peace and joy in the process, and this is wonderful. You probably also notice that some days, these practices don’t feel so natural. You don’t feel peace or joy in the process. In fact, you probably find that you are forcing yourself — swimming upstream.
The tendency is to assume that maybe today isn’t your day to sit for very long in prayer or meditation. Maybe this isn’t a good moment to really lean into worship. You’re just not feeling it.
Take a tip from the weight gym. Bodybuilders know that some days you feel strong. You can set personal records and feel encouraged by your progress. Maybe allow yourself a little flex in the mirror when no one is looking. And there is nothing wrong with that. Pausing occasionally to acknowledge your accomplishments and the fruits of your efforts is healthy. But it turns out that these aren’t the days when you make gains.
The days when you really get stronger are the days you feel the weakest. When you put up your first set and feel puny. When it hurts, and you can’t even get in your full reps before you fail. These days, when you feel the weakest, are the ones that actually make you bigger and stronger — as long as you endure.
"Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Cor 12:9-10 NLT
The same goes for spiritual fitness. We all need days when sitting with God brings you a peace and a joy that encourages you and lets you know that you are walking on the right path. But that is not when we actually grow closer to God.
So next time you don’t feel like worshipping, raise your hands extra high. Lean in and know that when you worship God on the days you least feel like it, that is when you show Him and yourself that you choose Him even when life is hard or spiritual things are the furthest from your mind. That you glorify God and place Him above your pain and your fatigue, above your distractions, above your fears and your aspirations.
On the other side of pushing through this barrier you will see more strength and peace, and you will enjoy even greater closeness with Him.
