Body Building

[James] Over the past year, God has been challenging me to spend more time with him. He has been calling me to make him the priority, the focal point and the starting point in my day. 

Although I have been raised in the church and have been taught about a hundred different ways to pray or to spend time with God, I found myself recently completely at a loss as to how to spend time with Him. I found that I was without direction or vision for what my time with God should look like. I knew that there were so many things that I wanted to bring to the Lord, but no organization as to how that would look.

....

About 7 years ago, my friend Ryan and I wanted to start hitting the gym. We were both hoping to get into better shape, put on a few lbs and to be more fit for the things that we loved to do, namely skiing. So we hit the gym. I had up until that point walked into the gym, tried a few things that I was familiar with, or at least things that I knew I wouldn't look like a fool doing. I was mostly focused on the outward appearing muscles because those are often thought to be the definition of fitness; biceps, abs, and pecs. I never really got anywhere. I stayed pretty much the same in size shape and ability. 

Ryan, being the researcher, did some searching and eventually found a routine that was started with a body builder back in the 70's named Bill Star. Although I knew nothing about Bill Star, I assumed he was stronger than I and worthy of having a notable "routine". So we began the routine, and it included things that felt extremely unnatural and painful at times. Some of the exercises that we did were foreign to most of the gym rats. We received a lot of weird looks that first year. The specific thing that this routine did for Ryan and I was it built a core and it gave us a disciplined direction. We were not longer gym-mice running around from machine to machine hoping to put on some aesthetic muscle, we were intentional and focused. The routine began to pay off and as we continued to commit to it, we found ourselves getting stronger and fitter. Today the core strength that I have put on over those first few years endured and provides an incredible base each time I enter into a season of lifting, skiing or exercising. 

...

After waking up several times to spend time with the Lord and having no idea where to go or what to do, I became frustrated. I found myself trying to pray but being overwhelmed because I had so much to pray for and no idea how to use my time. In the midst of my frustration and struggle, God sent an answer to my hearts desire. Michael, my mentor told me that he would love to have me join him one morning to see how he spends time with God. Immediately I jumped to the opportunity. He came over one morning this past week and shared with me a gold mine of the spiritual kind. What Michael gave me was not "the answer" to finding intimacy with God. What he gave me was not "the only way" to spend time with God. What Michael gave me was "a" way that really spoke to me and helped me. It was simple and yet complete. I will share it, briefly, with you...

• Begin with worship (2-3 songs) to enter into the presence of God. To set your heart in the right place. This is like the cardio of our spiritual exercise. 
• Recite 2-3 passages aloud that are specific to you in that season. Don't have one? Pray for them. Listen for them. Start with simple ones that you know. These verses may change with seasons.
• Spend time in prayer using the Lords Prayer as your model. 
• Our Father - List out the names of God and bold the ones that are specific to you in that season. Ex. "Jevoah Jireh" means the Lord will provide (Gen 22:13-14). Give thank and praise for the way that God has shown himself/or needs to show himself to you in this season.
• Thy Kingdom Come - Pray for the Kingdom to come in your life, your spouses life, your families life, your friends lives, your church, your community, your business, your city, your country and our world. (Michael writes out specific needs and prayers for each category so as to keep track of all the people and situations, or to remember the people that you have committed to pray for)
• Give us this day - petitioning to God your immediate needs for that day
• Forgive us our trespasses - seeking forgiveness, confessing sin, asking for conviction for sin, forgiving others who have wronged us
• Lead us not into temptation - praying for your own weaknesses and blind spots, like an athlete who records their own performance, making yourself more award of the areas in which you are weak and praying for God's specific guidance and protection in those areas
• For thine is the Kingdom... closing your time of prayer. 
• Scripture - reading 2-3 chapters of the word each day. With the amount of revelation that has been given to us through God's Holy Scriptures, there is no excuse to not be reading from the Bible each day. 
• Journaling - record your reactions, revelations that God gave you, or the questions that are burning on your heart.
• Waiting - waiting upon the Lord in silent meditation. Give time and space for God to speak to your heart. Michael claims that the time required to hear the voice of God get's shorter and shorter the more that he does this. By this time in his devotions he has already worshiped, prayed and spent time in the word, hearing God's voice usually happened at some point along the way. 
• Personal declarations - speaking out loud declarations over your life in the following areas; Personal, Relational, Professional and Public. Again Michael writes these out which is new to me, but I like that he has specific words of truth and promises to himself that he speaks before he begins his day. I am still in the process of writing these. An example might look like, "I will seek to be the presence of Christ to those in my work place, reflecting His heart through my patience, joy and attitude."

Again, this is "a" model and "a" routine. I am eager to continue with this and would love anyone else to join me. It is taking me some time to write these things out and even more time to work my way up to the point where I have 1 hour or more set aside for all of this. Yet, completing it is not the goal. Spending time with God is. There is no time spent with God that will be fruitless or meaningless, but there will be ways that work better than others for each person. This is what I call "Body Building".

So, pray for me as I build my spiritual core, as I pursue discipline and consistency, and as I give more time for myself to be nourished by the one who is only able to bring me the nourishment that I need!

Thank you.