PART 1 – Flexibility Training – Reading
Adam was created by hand. For everything else in creation, God spoke it into being; but for man, God got His hands dirty and put His very own breath into Adam. Man is different from the rest of creation. As for Eve, God didn’t start over, do it better, or different, but He took part of Adam’s own flesh to create a suitable mate for him. Again, God created Eve in a very personal, hands-on way. Then God brought her to Adam and performed the first wedding.
Take a few minutes and read Genesis 2 and enjoy this glimpse of the world as God created it for us to enjoy.
“Naked and not ashamed.” That is how God created us to be.
Okay, that is all the time we have for bliss. Now let’s see how we earned this sinful, shameful, mess of a world in which we now live. And it all begins with a question: “Did God really say…?”
It seems so innocent, doesn’t it. Almost like a clarifying question. “I want to get this right. Just what did God say?” But that’s not how it went. It was a toxic question intended to get Adam and Even doubting the goodness of God.
Read Genesis chapter 3. Look at what God told Adam in chapter 2 and compare that with what Eve quoted God as having said in chapter 3.
This is the same tactic that the enemy, Satan, still uses. He questions what God has said. Gets us doubting the goodness and provision of God. This is why it is so important to know, really know, the Word of God. What did God really say?
PART 2 – Strength Training – Memory & Thinking
Memorize the verse below and review the verse from yesterday
Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The New Testament refers many times Genesis 2:24. Below are just a few of the references Jesus and Paul make to Adam and Eve. Each time they speak we receive a deeper understanding of the Genesis account of marriage or to the way the serpent deceived Adam and Eve. There are also a few other verses below that refer to the choice Adam and Eve made to sin. Read through the following verses and spend a few moments thinking about how they relate to what you read in Genesis 2 and 3.
Genesis 2:24 (NLT)
This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
Mark 10.5-9 (NLT)
But Jesus responded, “[Moses] wrote this commandment [about divorce] only as a concession to your hard hearts. But ‘God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation. ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”
1 Corinthians 6.15-17 (NLT)
Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
Ephesians 5:28-33 (NLT)
In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body.
As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
2 Corinthians 11:3 (ESV)
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.
PART 3 – Cardio Training – Prayer
Talk to God about what you’ve read above. Ask Him to send you the Holy Spirit to explain the parts you don’t understand. If you don’t know what to pray about, you might try this prayer.
Dear Father, I read how You created us, that You were very personally involved, even breathing Your very breathe into us. I also read how our first parents didn’t learn Your rules very well. They didn’t know just what You had required for them to do. That made it easier for the serpent to trick them and confuse them and doubt You.
Father, forgive me for not knowing Your Word better. Help me learn it well. Help me understand it well. And help me honor You by obeying Your rules. Help me begin to think more about Your Words today than I did yesterday. And when anyone asks me what You said, help me get it right.
PART 4 – Endurance
Endurance is continuing even when it’s hard. Do you remember the verse you memorized yesterday? As we saw in the section about Adam and Eve, it is so important to really know just what God has said. So keep working on those verses! Try to say each verse you memorized to yourself throughout the day – as you’re driving to work, as the same old commercial is running, as you wait in line at the grocery store. Find a way to carry them with you so you can check for accuracy. Don’t forget to memorize where it’s from. By the end of this month, you should have at least 31 verses memorized. The good news the Holy Spirit is always there ready to help you. If you find yourself in trouble, or in doubt, or facing hard questions, ask Him to help you.
Then come back again tomorrow and read more of God’s wonderful Words of Life.
Faith Gym 