Spiritual Exercises

For the longest time, I'd go hit the gym and then come back and maybe read a little bit of the Bible, maybe a short devotional and maybe even pray. Maybe. I wanted to make sure I hit the gym before I did anything else. Recently, I've changed that. I've been instead, taking time in the morning to exercise spiritually before exercising physically. It is a different experience.

I've learned that in weight lifting, and in any and all exercise routines you have, you get out of it what you put into it. You cannot gain muscle mass without working out. You can't get better at running if you do not keep it up. And you can struggle spiritually if you do not constantly come to God in prayer.

Now, when it comes to constantly being in prayer, I'm not saying that this means all will be okay, that all your problems will be fixed. I'm saying is how you deal with things will be different. A lot different. How you deal with setbacks, how you deal with joys, how you deal with God will be different. But you get out of it what you put into it. If you just give a quick short prayer and that's it, then you're not getting out much. If you just do a long prayer once a week, you're not getting out much.

Try this, work on your spiritual muscles and health the same way you might work on your physical health. Set aside time and come to God in prayer. Start out slowly as you would in weight lifting or running. Then progress further. You can do short times of prayer mixed in with longer times in prayer. Short times trying to understand God through reading the Bible, and long times. But start small and work your way up. And if you've been away from it for an extended amount of time, don't start off where you were last time, go back to the basics and move forward from there again.

I truly think that our spiritual health is just as important as our physical and emotional health. All three need to be worked on, maintained and continued to move forward.