Just as every athlete must train to win, every Christian must make their faith strong through spiritual disciplines. Nobody can sit on the couch eating Cheetos for months and hope to compete. The best athletes are intensely disciplined. They follow a strict diet and exercise regimens to beat their body into peak physical condition, so when the game is on the line, they are ready.

Before he was arrested and crucified, Jesus prayed for all believers “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).Together the embers of a fire glow red-hot. But scattered, they soon grow cold. That is why the discipline of fellowship is so important.