Core Work

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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1315.

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Today's Devo is called Core Work. Hey there. We're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast. Well, happy Friday, everybody. Today we're going to close out the week talking about some core work. We're going to do a little core workout session. All right? This morning, when I was working out at my gym, I was finishing up my. My leg day, and I was doing Bulgarian split squats. If anybody knows what I'm talking about, that's probably going to be the thing that kills me. I. I cannot handle them. Well, I take off my shoes.

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This is me being very vulnerable when I'm at the gym. Certain workouts, I'll take off my shoes because it's easier to just be like, fully on the ground. And I just feel like I have more control and all that, but I have socks on just so everybody's aware, but I'll take off my shoes. So I was working out, had my headphones in, and I'm struggling between my second set of the Bulgarian split squats. And one of the trainers comes over to me and she's like, kai, excuse me, I'm so sorry. You have to keep your shoes on. And then I was super embarrassed, so I'm like, yes, ma', am. I'm so sorry. And then she starts asking me.

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She's like, hey, what are you. What are you working on? And I told her I'm working on my legs and all that. So I start to break down what I was. I was doing that day. And she goes, oh, that's awesome. So you're building your legs. I could see you're really building your legs today. And I said, yeah. And she mentioned it. She goes, how much core do you do? Do you do a lot of core? And I was like, you know, honestly, and, and I know this is terrible, but I. I just kind of forget about it.

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I told her I forget about it. You know, my. My week gets busy, and so I work out may. And so, you know, I'll do arms and I'll do legs and maybe another arm day or whatever. And I said, I always forget and leave out core. And she mentioned something to me. She goes, you know, when you're building your legs and your arms, it's easy to neglect the core when you need it the most. And I was like, what?

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She basically told me, she said those two workouts, those two sets of workouts. But what people don't realize is in order to lift with your legs and to push heavy weight and to have good form, you need a strong core. And in order for you to lift heavy weights in your upper body and for you to do push ups, pull ups, whatever it is, you need to have a strong core. And so she said it, you need to always start with a strong core because it shows you you have a strong center. If you have a strong center, you can build up your legs and build up your arms.

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Well, this poor girl in the gym had no idea that I'm getting this revelation over here, because the same is said when it comes to our relationship with God. We need to have a strong center. If our center, if it withstands the test of time and storms and battles, if that's what we got going on, then lifting weights in life and pushing weight and. And building our spiritual muscles, that's gonna be not easy, but it's gonna be effective. It's going to work. We're gonna build actual muscle. But if we don't have a strong center, if we're just working out and trying to put weight on, spiritual weight on us, and our core is not in tight, we're gonna fall, we're gonna struggle, we're gonna

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20 says this. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live in me. The life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the Son who loved me and gave himself for me. What is he saying here? He's saying, Christ is in me. Christ is my center.

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I live through the faith and the spirit of God. I live by the faith in the Son of God. Christ is my center. And when Christ is our center, we can lift heavier weights.

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We can take some creatine and show off our muscles. Why? Because Christ is at the center. We're not trying to become Bible scholars without having a relationship with the Lord. We're not trying to make good decisions without knowing what pleases God. You see, there are steps. There are. There are things that we need to adapt and learn and grow in before we start putting on this heavyweight.

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And the reality is, what she told me today was so true because for the first time today, I did like a barbell squat, like that big bar on Your back. And I squat down. Well, when I was halfway through that workout, I started to feel it in my back. So I quickly stopped. I threw the. I put the bar back, I sat down. I was just trying to catch my breath. And when I told her that, she told me. She goes, that's because you don't have a strong core. And if your core isn't firm enough, you will injure yourself.

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You will find yourself with more injuries because you don't have that strong guys. The same is true for us when it comes to our relationship with God and living our lives. We gotta have a strong core. We need to know our center. And our center is Christ that lives inside of us.

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It starts there and everything flows from it. If you're trying to make a decision but Christ isn't inside and doesn't live in you, it's going to be hard to make a God decision. If you're really wanting to commit whatever you do to God, but God isn't inside of you. It's going to. You'll never experience the plans if you are. Are wanting the goodness of God, but God isn't inside of you at your center as your center. It's. It's hard to experience that. Why?

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Because he's not your center. We've got to make him our center. I want to finish this by reading the same verse, but I want to read it in the message translation. So it's Galatians

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19 through 20. In the message it says this.

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What actually took place is this. I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a law man so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with Him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ.

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My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion. And I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not mine, but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I am not going back to that.

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Our ego cannot be our center. It's gotta be the Lord. God, we thank youk. We thank youk for this week. We thank youk for what yout've shown us. We thank youk for what yout've told us and blessed us with. But God, we place youe at the center today. No more putting ourselves in the center. No more putting people in the center.

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You are at the center. Because, Father, there are going to be spiritual mountains and spiritual muscles that we have to grow. We're going to have to develop an endurance, a spiritual endurance, Father. But that comes when we have a strong center. So we choose you as our center. In Jesus name, Amen. And Amen. So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today.

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