How Good Is Your Stamina? [Day 10]

According to CrossFit, true fitness is made up of 10 skills. They are Cardiovascular and Respiratory Endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy. Take a moment and try to define each one in your own words from a physical standpoint. Over the next 2 weeks we’ll be going over what it means to get ready and stay ready as it applies to these 10 physical skills and how they should manifest in our spiritual lives.

Endurance vs. Stamina:
Yesterday, we spoke about endurance. Cardiorespiratory endurance is when your heart (cardio) and lungs (respiratory) work together to pump blood to your muscles which then can be processed into energy. Just to sit in your chair and read this devotional requires that you have energy and therefore, endurance. Now’s let discuss stamina. Many of us probably confuse stamina with endurance. Biologically here are both definitions:

  • Endurance: The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
  • Stamina: The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.

While they seem related, they actually accomplish different tasks in the body. When we think of endurance, we should think of the maximum amount of time that a given group of muscles can perform a certain action. A test of endurance would be to run as long as possible without stopping (and it doesn’t matter how slow you go). But our stamina is the amount of time that a given group of muscles can perform at or near maximum capacity. For stamina, I want to see hard how hard I can go for a specific amount of time. For example, a test of stamina is how many push-ups, pull-ups or sit-ups someone can do in 2 minutes.

Why does this matter?
Stamina produces benefits and gains in your health and fitness that endurance alone cannot produce. Stamina ensures you can perform a given task with your best possible effort. The same applies to our walk with God. When’s the last time God gave you a task or assignment to fulfill? Did you give it your best effort? Essentially spiritual stamina is making the most of your time. In particular, it’s making the most of the specific season of life that you are in right now.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..”  This should give us hope that God has prepared different seasons for our lives to bring about different “fruits” . Our job is to recognize the season we’re currently in and give it our best effort.

How Do We Get Ready And Prepare For Spiritual Stamina?
1. What season of life are you in? Are you making the best of it or barely getting along?
2.  Read the following passages (Psalm 90:12, Psalm 39:4-5, Ephesians 5:11-17). How can you become more intentional about living out this season to your highest potential?

How Do We Stay Ready and Show Spiritual Stamina?
1. Read  the following passages (Ecclesiastes 9:10, Proverbs 12:24 and Colossians 3:23). What do these passages say about how we should walk, talk and act during seasons of life?

 Seasons of life will come and go. We must not only endure them but show stamina and make the BEST of them.