Oh, how we despise stretching! Walking? That’s fine. Running? Bring it on. Basketball? I’ll show you a three-pointer. We can even go for sit-ups, push-ups, and we tackle the machines in the gym. But please don’t ask us to stretch!

But my friends, a recent Harvard Health article said, “Flexibility can be the key that unlocks a safer and more active lifestyle. Proper flexibility means you can bend, reach, twist, stretch, and sit and stand with a greater range of motion…. The good news is that with a regular stretching routine, you can improve flexibility no matter your age.”¹

Giving your body a good stretch only takes five to ten minutes, and there are many ways of doing it. Your doctor, chiropractor, or gym instructor can suggest simple techniques, or you can find all you need to begin online.

Just remember, your arms and legs aren’t the only things that need to be stretched. First Timothy 4:8 says, “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”

Think of it like this:

• Stretching your body is important to stay healthy.
• Stretching your mind is good for brain function, so stay engaged.
• Stretching your boundaries leads to new experiences, so stay open.
• Stretching your time lets you stay available.

Let me suggest that part of your daily stretch is to increase your reach where God is concerned. The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven” (Exodus 9:22). And like the apostle Paul, we need to be “reaching forward to those things which are ahead” (Philippians 3:13).

Your Daily Stretch: Growing in the Word

A good place to begin is by stretching out your hand for a Bible. Professor Kenneth Berding noted how much time people spend watching television, tracking their social media, and playing video games. He wrote, “Almost everyone I know spends more time on one of these activities than they do reading, studying, and memorizing the Bible.”²

He continued, “When we really and truly begin to believe that the Word of God is sufficient and clear regarding life and godliness, we will begin to act like it. We will spend time reading it, studying it, memorizing it, and meditating on it. We won’t simply go about our business without any thought to what God has said about life. We will value the Bible and use it.”³

Stretch out your hands for the Word of God right now!

Your Daily Stretch: Increase Your Time in Prayer

We also need to preserve and increase our time in prayer. In Mark 1:40-41, a leper came to Jesus, kneeling down and imploring Him for healing. “Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him.”

How badly we need Jesus to stretch out His hand to touch our problems, hurts, burdens, and needs. He’s sometimes more willing to do so than we are to ask. Part of our spiritual stretching exercises involves stretching out our hands toward heaven. Psalm 77:2 says, “In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing.”

The chief purpose of prayer is to become more aware of our Father’s presence. Often when we don’t know what to do, we need to sit still with an open Bible before us, asking God to draw us into a sense of His nearness that we may gain discernment. Professor George P. Pardington, who served with the Christian and Missionary Alliance many years ago, wrote, “Our hearts are like a sensitive photographer’s film—the longer exposed, the deeper the impression. For God’s vision to be impressed on our hearts, we must sit in stillness at His feet for quite a long time…. Our lives must be quiet and restful if we would see God.”⁴

We’ve never been busier; but in all our rushing around we’ve never needed to be still before His throne more than now.

Your Daily Stretch: Reaching Out to Others With the Gospel

We also need to stretch our evangelism muscles. As a rookie baseball player with the Texas Rangers, Evan Carter knows about stretching before starting his warmups, but he’s also known for stretching out with the Gospel. Last fall, he showed up to the pregame warm-up wearing a T-shirt with the words “JESUS WON” printed boldly on the front. He’s not shy about sharing his faith in Christ.

You don’t have to wear an evangelistic T-shirt, but we can all start adding phrases to our daily conversations—with our ride share driver, our dental hygienist, our golfing buddy. We can say things like, “I’ve been praying for you.” Or, “The Lord bless you today.” Or, “Hasn’t the Lord given us a beautiful day?” Maybe even, “Let me tell you about a verse I read today in the Bible.”

Sometimes the other person will respond in a way that lets us know the Holy Spirit is working, and we’re able to take the conversation further.

Your Daily Stretch: Find Other Ways to Share the Love of Jesus

I believe the Lord gives each of us a personal ministry. Every follower of Christ is a minister. Of course, not every believer is an ordained clergyman, a pastor, or a church staff member. But according to Ephesians 4, the leaders of the local church are placed there “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry” (verse 12).

When you read the book of Acts, almost all the stories center on Peter and Paul, but if you read carefully, you’ll find a parade of little known laymen and laywomen who without formal training served the Lord just as faithfully as their better-known brothers.

Dorcas used her sewing skills to make garments for the poor. She was “full of good works and charitable deeds which she did” (Acts 9:36). Aquila and Priscilla were craftsmen, but they opened their home to God’s people and mentored Apollos (Acts 18:2, 26). Jason of Ephesus harbored believers who were endangered in Ephesus (Acts 17:7). Rhoda was a maid who helped care for persecuted believers in her employer’s home (Acts 12:13). Sopater was an obscure believer of Berea who took a short-term mission trip to care for Paul (Acts 20:4).

Your local church has plenty of options, from working in the nursery to serving in a local soup kitchen. Outside the church, you’re surrounded by people with needs. We should better see and touch those needs. God isn’t finished with us. He’s not finished with you. He’s hardly begun!

Best-selling writer Tracie Miles wrote a devotional for Proverbs 31 Ministries, saying:

Several years ago, I participated in a mission trip to renovate homes of families in need. God planned to stretch me beyond what was comfortable that week, but as it turned out, it wasn’t the work or inconveniences that stretched me.

I wasn't stretched as I climbed up a 10-foot ladder to hand someone a heavy can of paint. Or as I sprawled across a noisy air mattress every night—hoping it wouldn't completely deflate before morning. I wasn't stretched as I endured 105-degree temperatures, wearing the required attire of full-length jeans that stuck to my sweaty legs like glue.

I wasn't even stretched taking showers in close proximity to total strangers, separated by only a thin curtain, or when I shared that awkward shower with a large, dead, winged creature lying in the drain.

None of these things were enjoyable, but they weren’t really outside of my “comfort zone.” Yet when it came time to walk through a local neighborhood, knock on doors and share the Gospel, with the looming fear a door might be slammed in my face (or worse), I felt my faith being stretched.

Looking back now, I realize God was gently pushing me out of my comfort zone into a faith zone. He confronted me with the choice to stretch my faith or play it safe.⁵

Don’t be afraid to be pushed by the Holy Spirit! Do some stretching in the new year. Take the daily stretch challenge. Reach out and strain toward what’s ahead. Grow in the Word, in prayer, in the Gospel, and in your personal ministry.

If you and I do that, I can promise you—We’ll reach more in 2024!

Sources:

¹Matthew Solan, “Stretching It Out,” Harvard Health Publishing, May 1, 2023.

²Kenneth Berding, Bible Revival (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), 24.

³Ibid., 43.

⁴Quoted in Michelle Ule, Overflowing Faith: Lettie Cowman and Streams in the Desert (Greenwood, IN, 2023), 149.

⁵Tracie Miles, “Time to Do a Little Faith Stretching,” Proverbs 31 Ministries, September 23, 2014.