Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

The Bible is filled with references to water. From the creation account where we read that "the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters" (Genesis 1:2), all the way to the last chapter of Revelation where we're told of "a river of the water of life, clear as crystal."

It often helps to say what we have to say in as few words as possible. More often than not, we remember something a lot longer if it is brief and to the point. Maybe that's why the book of Proverbs remains such a help to so many—it's comprised of short, pithy statements that stick.

Like the races that were run by those heroes we looked at yesterday in the "hall of faith" of Hebrews chapter 11, our race isn't an easy one. Far from it. The first verse of Hebrews 12 urges us to "run with endurance the race that is set before us."

Just as there is a Hall of Fame for outstanding athletes who distinguished themselves in various sports in America, the Bible contains what we might call a "hall of faith." It is located in the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews.

I read about a physician recently who got concerned that his work was becoming far too sedentary as he was getting older. He was gaining weight and feeling increasingly more sluggish. Realizing that his schedule didn't permit a lot of extra hours to spend at the local fitness club every day, he decided to change a few bad habits on his own.

One of my mentors used to make me smile when he explained why a football game reminded him of most churches: "Down on the field are 22 people playing their hearts out, who are desperately in need of rest . . . and they're surrounded by thousands of spectators doing nothing but watching."

Yesterday, I introduced you to Caleb, one of my all-time favorite Bible characters. Talk about a guy who stayed fit! What makes his story so exciting is that the man—at 85 years old—was still at it. He was ready for a brand-new challenge.

There aren't many things better than exercise to keep all of us feeling, thinking, and looking younger than we are. For almost 10 years, my wife and I lived in a home in Dallas, Texas, located about a quarter of a mile from the renowned Cooper Aerobics Center.

The great apostle Paul loved athletic events. Anyone who has made a serious study of the man's writings in the New Testament cannot help but come to that conclusion. He often used word pictures that reflected his knowledge of and interest in the athletic contests of his day.

As we read yesterday, there is a brief and clear section of Scripture that addresses the subject of lust. It is located in three verses found in the first chapter of James. . . . We're urged not to place the blame elsewhere when we're tempted—certainly not on God!

Only humans have the wide range of emotions that we experience. Some of them are so powerful that they can take charge of our lives. They range from the super-positive ones—feelings like joy, peace, contentment, relief, enthusiasm, hope, excitement, and romantic love—to the opposite extreme.

Several years ago I determined to deal with my attitude. I found myself getting pretty testy, even argumentative at times. Our children were young and often had needs that required my time and attention. More often than I'd like to admit, that irritated me.

We've been thinking a lot about the negative impact of out-of-control emotions. Let's turn the subject around and consider the flip side of this—the value of a positive mental attitude. By that, we're not referring to some sort of self-induced motivation to "think positive."

Cain failed to heed the Lord's counsel. Allowing the crouching, hungry beast within him to attack, Cain later murdered his younger brother—and to make things even worse, he could never escape the consequences.

We've all heard the expression "mind over matter." For the sake of our thinking today, let's alter the saying to "mind over emotion." To tie it in even more directly to a story from the Bible where these words would really apply, we should change it to "mind over madder."

Yesterday, we saw that God made us emotional creatures with feelings, but these feelings must be controlled. Let's relate this to food. Food is fuel. It's not your enemy; it's your friend. But food cannot be your best friend and, for sure, it must not be your god.

Sometime during the crazy decade of the 1960s, when everything went topsy-turvy, emotions were promoted to first place. Feelings became more important than logic, more important than clear thinking, even more important than common sense.

Once a person comes to know Jesus personally, an amazing inner transformation occurs. Paul pinpointed that fact in his second letter to the Corinthians: "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

Unlike animals, God made humans in His image. This is clearly stated in the first book of the Bible: "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1:27)."

No one is immune to problems in the areas of exercise, digestion, and diet—not even those in ministry. For example, consider a middle-aged minister of the gospel named Timothy, who was the pastor of a church in the busy, heavily populated city of Ephesus back in its heyday.