QUANTUM
WEIGHT LOSS

Topics: Adversity; Endurance; Perseverance; Trials

References: Romans 5:3–4; James 1:2–4; 1 Peter 1:6–7

I had put on weight and was out of shape, so a year ago I began working on my sagging waistline. Day after day, I worked hard on cardiovascular exercise and weight training, seeming to get nowhere. Straining. Sweating. Sucking wind. Questioning my sanity.

Finally, after several months, a quantum leap occurred. Weight began to drop off. Muscle began to get toned. And endurance increased. Medical friends tell me that during the constancy of working out, regardless of how I felt, a whole new freeway system of small blood vessels and capillaries was forming within my body. Then came the day when they decided it was time for a “grand opening.” Suddenly, more blood came flooding into the muscle tissue, and the resulting benefits seemed to be exponential.

Likewise, when we’re walking through the depths of trials, God is building up a secondary support system of endurance so that we might be even more prepared for the next time adversity comes our way.

—Bob Reccord, Forged by Fire (Broadman & Holman, 2000)