I go to the gym five days a week to torture myself. Why? Well 15 years ago it was about having the sculpted body for all the ladies to swoon over me, not that it ever happened, but it was a goal nonetheless.

When I realized that I was getting nowhere with that approach and I was getting old…er, I decided that my ego must go and instead I needed to exercise for health. Truthfully that is the real purpose for working out.

I can’t run as fast.

I can’t push as much weight.

I don’t recover as quickly.

It is beginning to look like I am on the downward slope. However, while the physical strength and speed may be diminishing, my endurance is lengthening. I am more focused when I work out. My training sessions are more purposeful. I feel more fulfilled.

What does this have to do with anything of God or spiritual truths? When I was younger I was all over the place. My life was lived in bursts of faithfulness, and segments of sinfulness. I wasn’t intentional in my faith, and randomness was my mantra. I lived by the moment and very rarely looked at the finish line. Reading God’s word was inconsistent and humdrum.

We often say, “Hindsight is 20/20.” I look back into my past and I see things much more clearly. When we recognize life as a marathon and not a sprint, we change how we work out spiritually. We become more focused in our quiet times, we are more intentional in our prayers, and we realize our spiritual diet cannot consist of one or two big meals of the Holy Spirit a day. We need to feed ourselves throughout the entire day continually on the truths of God.

God doesn’t care as much about the outside as He does the heart. Truthfully spiritual discipline isn’t about what we do. Instead it is about who we know and how well we know Him.

If you are realizing you need to re-focus your spiritual training regiment, do it and don’t look back. Better now than later. Plan on getting more out of your workout sessions with God, and see the positive results in yourself that you could never have anticipated.