The joy of combining spiritual and physical exercise
You can ask two questions of Christians and likely get the same answer! “Do you spend enough time exercising?” You will probably hear, “No, because I do not have enough time.” That is probably the exact answer you would get if you ask the second question: “Do you spend enough time with the Lord?” Every child of God naturally desires more time alone with their Father, but what can you do to create more space in your days for God?
First, you must have a protected, designated time in solitude to read your Bible, meditate, and pray. Jesus clarified this requirement and its reward: “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). You must have a scheduled and still time!
Get Moving!
But what about finding more time alone with God after that? Take it outside! Find a form of exercise in which you can still be thinking about God and interacting with him. Paul compared spiritual disciplines with physical discipline: “. . .Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7-8). Paul did not discount the value of physical exercise but showed that it was the lesser of the two. Why not plan to walk, run, hike, bike, etc., while you “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 2:2)?
Make a plan! If we let our minds wander while we wonder, our active time may not be very spiritual. We might get a jog or walk in, but our minds will keep running through mental to-do lists or replaying stressful situations. Your “inner room” time needs to be planned out, and so does your “take it outside” time. If you do not plan to occupy your mind with the things of God, the devil can turn your active time into worldly or wicked thinking! We and our minds are never “neutral” spiritually.
What will you meditate on?
What prayer list will you use?
What will you listen to?
What a delightful discovery to find that the Holy Spirit can help you personalize your own spiritual/physical workout plan. Here are three suggestions for practicing spiritual disciplines on the go. As long as you direct your thoughts toward the Lord and see godly fruits being cultivated because of those times, feel free to improvise!
Meditate While You Walk!
If you are intentional as you exercise, you can direct your mind toward thoughts of God and the good things he has made. How refreshing to praise him for his character (“Immortal, invisible, God only wise,”) or where you see reflections of him in “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable…” (Philippians 4:8)! John Stott, the astute Anglican preacher, scholar, and leader described how his walking involved appreciating God: “remembering that every fresh breath, every heartbeat, was a gift from God which could be taken away at any time."1
Benefiting from meditation on the go will be easier if you first rise to spend time with God formally before this informal communion with him. It will not work to fill your head with the latest news streams from your phone or read the newspaper before you get in motion. Meditative walking with God can only extend your “still time” before him, not replace it. It is a bit more challenging to plan at first, but as an extension of your mobile meditation, you can memorize whatever passage you are meditating on. In the physical motion of your body, God supernaturally stirs up your mind, making memorization easier and inexplicably more powerful.
2. Pray While You Walk!
Unlike meditation in motion, which does not require information to be carried along, if you want to walk and pray, you should take prayer lists along with you. Write, print out, or carry along a prayer list. This is the only time that you will find me walking outside with my phone. I have 11 rotating daily prayer lists on my phone so I am praying for different things and different people from the same categories each day. Having them on my phone gives me the flexibility to walk and pray through my prayer lists. I do not practice this every day, and sometimes, this walking “prayer time” is my cool-down from a morning run. But walking out your prayers will add variety to your prayer life and really help on busy days when you might otherwise have to choose between 15 minutes of prayer or exercise.
F.B. Meyer praised spiritual time with God while in motion inside or outside, connecting the Bible, meditation, and prayer: “There is no better way of communing with God than to walk to and fro in your room or in the open air, your Bible in hand, meditating on it and turning its precepts and promises into prayer. God walks in the glades of Scripture, as of old He walked in those of Paradise."2
3. Listen While You Walk!
Many Christians benefit from sermons online. What a great blessing God has given current generations of believers! Be committed to a local church and be under the teaching of the pastor every Sunday. Before you “get going,” download and take along a sermon by a famous preacher. If you walk regularly, you will be surprised how many sermons you can listen to. You will find that not only are you listening to better preaching than you might hear on Sunday mornings, but also that while walking, you are listening and remembering better. You can also pause a sermon at any point and begin to pray about what God has just said to you.
My wife loves the preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899 –1981). She treasured her 4-mile morning walks while listening to his entire Romans series (366 sermons). It took several years, but what a journey for her spiritually! There is an MLJ app available for your phone, or you can find his sermons directly online here. God brought my wife to a higher level of understanding and maturity through this series, and she wanted her friends to benefit from the same soul care. Here is the Facebook picture she posted last year to celebrate the completion of that walking journey with God and “the good doctor,” as the famous medical doctor and preacher was affectionately called.
Get Moving!
Unless you know you are getting enough time with God and enough exercise, why not try combining these disciplines? If you have found other ways to combine time spent with God and other ordinary activities, pass them along to me. I love hearing how God’s children discover to spend extra moments with Him!
Here is a helpful, related article:
by David Mathis
1Tim Chester, Stott on the Christian Life: Between Two Worlds. ed. Stephen J. Nichols and Justin Taylor, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 133.
2F. B. Meyer, The Secret of Guidance (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2010), 121.
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