Ø Monday:
Love
Ø Tuesday:
Joy
Ø Wednesday:
Peace
Ø Thursday:
Spreading the Gospel
Ø Friday:
Poor Relief
Ø Saturday:
Prayer
Ø Sunday:
Rest
The Idea is to build up Christian muscles which are these 6 virtues followed by a day of rest. If you have ever been to the gym to build muscles or just to tone up, you will have been given a similar workout routine, working on Back, Chest, Biceps, Triceps, Shoulders, and Legs, with some cardio and a warm-up to start with. And this new method has a similar idea.
I have called this devotional method “the Christian Workout” solely because of it’s being based on a gym workout system.
I will be giving training advice on my new Workout blog http://www.thechristianworkout.blogspot.com/ but for now here is a bit of a starter:
On Monday our theme is Love:
I’m presuming that you will all be beginners for now; perhaps you are quite new to the Christian faith.
Every morning should start off with a Bible reading and a prayer, perhaps you could read 1 Corinthians 13 which is a great chapter, written by the Apostle Paul, completely devoted to love. Then you could pray that God will teach you how to love throughout the day.
Maybe you go to work, is there anyone you don’t like at work? Someone maybe you find hard to get along with? A great show of love would be to act courteously with them, be kind, and try and show a loving spirit. Remember God told us to love our enemies!
If you have time later, maybe you could pick up your study Bible, and look at all the themes of Love.
Love is the main theme in the Bible, it was all for love that Jesus came to Earth to save us, we would do well to truly understand this principle!
And before going to bed, don’t forget to read your Bible and pray again!
On Tuesday, our theme is Joy:
A great passage to read in the morning would be the Epistle to the Philippians, it’s all about Joy. Then you can pray to God that you will be given joy throughout the day.
Then what ever you do, see if you can keep smiling non-stop throughout the day. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t succeed, it takes a long time to build up your spiritual muscles. Do the best you can this week and hopefully next week you will be doing much better.
It won’t hurt to smile on the day’s that isn’t Tuesday, Tuesday is just the day when we really focus on Joy, a Christian should always have each of these principles in the Christian Workout at all times! But the idea of the workout is to encourage us to focus on these topics.
A Christian is a saved soul; nothing in this world that can ever happen to them should be able to make them sad or depressed!
On Wednesday our theme is Peace:
This one is really, really hard! Peace isn’t something easily acquired, like love and joy, we might only be able to achieve a little in a day, but we must pray that although we only achieve little, that God would help us to improve every week.
Is your job stressful? This inner peace can make all the difference.
I am no expert in Peace, I do not claim to have received much of it, but if we look in the Bible, doubtless we will be able to find the answers. I recommend that you buy yourself a good study Bible, and a concordance, just look through each of those reference to peace, look at examples of how people received peace and you will find the Bible an excellent resource.
And remember always read your Bible and pray.
On Thursday our theme is Spreading the Gospel:
This is one for every Christian, it’s the great commission found at the end of Matthew, preaching is not just for preachers, if you truly love God and are truly grateful for Him dying to save you, you will want to take every opportunity to talk to people about Him. But the problem is that we are all very fearful people, and we are afraid that people will make fun of us because we are Christians. So I have devoted Thursday to talking to people about Jesus.
In the morning you could read some chapters from the book of Acts, where the apostles told people about Jesus, ask for God’s help to open your mouth.
If you are anything like I used to be, you probably never even mentioned to your friends that you are a Christian, so a great start for you would be to let it slip out in conversation that you are a Christian, they won’t tear you to pieces, the hardest bit is overcoming yourself.
If you are an experienced Christian you might want to strike up a conversation with someone, and tell them about what Jesus means to you.
And remember, a good Christian life is as good an example as any, be kind and loving to all, and be certain to never do anything that God would not approve of.
On Friday, our theme is Poor Relief:
Give money to charity, if you have a good income you might want to set aside a sum of money each month for charities. Remember God loveth the cheerful giver!
Maybe you have some unwanted items hanging around the house, why not take them down to your local charity store.
Read the Gospels, you will see what love Jesus had to the poor.
Pray for the poor, prayer can do more than all the money in the world! But don’t think that you can pray and then you are absolved from financial contribution, that’s like the Pharisees that say one thing and do another.
As always, Bible study and prayer are invaluable!
On Saturday our theme is Prayer:
Prayer is of number 1 importance, and should be exercised every day, that and Bible Study form the Spiritual cardio, while the others form the spiritual muscle building.
But, we have set aside Saturday as a special day of prayer, see how long you can pray for with feeling. Don’t just say words, you have to really mean them, you must be passionate.
Pray for those close to you, pray for your natural and spiritual teachers, pray for important people in every walk of life, pray for the week and infirm, pray that the Lord would make you grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him, and most of all pray that God would be glorified.
A couple scripture passages that you might want to focus on is The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, and Jesus’ prayer in John 17.
There is much study that can be done on the matter of prayer, and much experience taken from simply pouring out your heart before God!
And finally on Sunday our theme is Rest:
Basically there is no theme, you just worship God as He ought to be worshipped, go to Church, sing praises just totally let God take over your life.
Remember God made the Sabbath for man and not man for the Sabbath, you should learn to enjoy your Sundays, do things that you want to do, but be certain that it’s all to do with God!
So just a few tips:
When building up your spiritual muscles, always work to your limit, love until you can love no more, be joyful until you have run out of joy, be perfectly peaceful until there is no peace left in you, and so on. Your spiritual muscles will only grow in they are pushed to their limits.
If you are new, don’t be disheartened if you feel like you are not achieving anything, everyone starts from somewhere.
And never let this workout become a burden to you, try and enjoy it. If it becomes a burden to you and makes you want to give up you Christianity it is of no use!
And remember all things should be done as unto The Lord bringing all honour and glory to His precious name!
Please check the blog mentioned above for more advice, and don’t hesitate to email me on cassie.holmes@hotmail.co.uk if you need advice or if you have any advice for me, or you just want to tell us how the workout scheme has blessed your life.
I pray the Lord would bless you,
Michael Buckingham.
