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Spiritual Triathlon - Part 6

Well, so now you are praying, reading your Bible, and meditating for 5 min each day, for a total of 15min of intensive time with God. Most importantly you are doing it all with faith in God!

Now, slowly start increasing the time of each “event”. When you increase the duration, strive to keep them balanced. Soon you will be spending 10min on each “event” for 30mins of powerful, concentrated time with God. When you are praying talk with God about how much He wants you to increase your times as ultimately this is between you and Him. Remember to keep a log of your times and look back on it periodically. I find it energizing to add up the time at the end of each month. For my log I have a simple three column Excel form that I put my times on. If you would like a copy of the spread sheet let me know and I would be happy to send you one.

I hope that you have found this time as refreshing and exciting as I have. I would love to hear how God is working in your lives through the Spiritual Triathlon. You can email me privately at Jay_McCaig@juno.com .Keep praying for me as I pray for you!

Thank you and God Bless You!

Spiritual Triathlon - Part 5

… If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Mathew 17:20

Today we are going to examine a component that must be present in each of our events for them to be effective. That component is faith. Without faith prayer is just words, without faith the Bible is just a book, without faith meditation is just daydreaming.

In Matthew 17 is the record of a child who is possessed by a demon, the disciples have tried to cast it out of the boy and failed. Jesus arrives and refers to the disciples, with a sorrowful voice, as “a faithless generation”. You see, the disciples had been trained by Jesus and had access to all of the power needed to accomplish the task – but they lacked faith. If you lack faith, your Spiritual Triathlon will be waste of time.

Jesus later tells the disciples “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting”. Both prayer and fasting are symptoms of faith. Faith expresses itself in communication. If we have little faith then we have little communication because we feel “what is the point?” Fasting is self-denial and surrender to the work of God If we want to do anything significant with God it is going to take spending some time with God and sacrificing some things for Him. Those who do not believe will not pray. They will think it is foolish to spend time with God. Those who do not pray will certainly not sacrifice.

How is your faith? Ask yourself this question “Do I believe God can do anything?” You may have quickly answered yes, but do you live your life like you believe? Are you worried about what tomorrow brings? Are you worried about how you are going to pay your bills? Do things of this world keep you awake at night? Whatever you fear or whatever worries you shows a weakness in your faith. Go to God right now and give it all to Him. Remind yourself everyday that God is God and He is still in control. He is all-powerful and can do anything. When you pray do it with the expectation that God will answer. When you read the Bible, do so with the knowledge that every jot and tittle is blessed, true, and written by the hand of God. When you meditate keep close to your mind that God is answering your prayers, visualizes what that will be like and prepare for his answer.

Pray for me as I pray for you.

Spiritual Triathlon - Part 4

My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. Psalm 119:48

Today we are going to look at the third “event” in our Spiritual Triathlon, Meditation. Since meditation is often associated with eastern religions, you may be wondering if meditation is an activity that Christians should participate. The answer is yes – it is Christian and it is biblical. Meditation is mentioned several times in the Bible; Isaac is recorded meditating in Genesis 24:36, Joshua is commanded by God to meditate in Joshua 1:8 and the Psalms are full of references to meditation.

Christian meditation is different from the eastern religion type of meditation. The goal of eastern meditation is to empty the mind and create a vacuum. Unfortunately, nature abhors a vacuum and your mind will quickly be filled with something worldly. Christian Meditation is the emptying of the mind and filling it with something from God.

For our Spiritual Triathlon we will be meditating immediately after our Prayer and Scripture Reading, so we will be meditating on the Scripture we just read. So how do you meditate? Well if you know how to worry then you know how to meditate. Worry is meditating on our problems (not productive), Christian Meditation is “worrying” on God’s Word (very productive). There are many ways to meditate on God’s Word, I have listed some of my favorites for you;

1. Memorizing Scripture is an excellent way to meditate on The Word.

2. Re-read and concentrate on those portions of scripture that caused you discomfort or confused you.

3. Imagine the story read and recreate it in your head. What did it look like to someone watching? What did it smell like? What did it sound like?

4. Play “If you were there” what was going on in the persons mind when he/she was involved in the events described? What did they see and feel?

Try meditating for 5 min after you prayer and Bible reading – you are now spending just 15 minutes of your day intensely focused on God, easy. Tomorrow we are going to talk about something that must be present in all three events in order for them to be the most effective. Keep praying for me as I pray for you.

Spiritual Triathlon - Part 3

2 Timothy 3:16: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Today we are going to look at the second event in our Spiritual Triathlon – Scripture Reading. While most Christians I know do pray at least a little to God, most only read their Bibles on Sunday when directed by their Pastor. The Bible is food for your spirit. If the only time your spirit eats is when it is spoon fed at church it will starve and will never grow to its full potential. The spirit that God gave you at the point of salvation must be fed regularly so that it can grow inside of you.

When we pray we are talking to God. When we read our Bibles we are letting God talk back. What good would a telephone without an ear piece be? That, in affect, is what we have when we pray without reading the Bible.

So, where in the Bible do we start? That is really up to you and God. The books of John and Romans are excellent for new Bible readers. Proverbs and Psalms are also good choices for new readers. Or maybe you want to start at the beginning and read to the end. Wherever you start keep track of what you read and try to read in an orderly manner. Don’t worry if you do not understand everything at first. God describes His book as “living” meaning that the more you read it the more it will reveal to you. Things that are unclear today will be clear and profitable to you a year from know when you read it again.

How much should we read? Try and keep your reading balanced with your prayer so if you are praying for 5mins then read for 5mins.

What Bible version should we use? I study, teach, and preach from the King James Bible. I have yet to find another English version of the Scripture that is closer to the original Greek & Hebrew text than the KJV so that is what I recommend for you to use.

So now we are praying for five minutes and reading our Bibles for five minutes everyday. Only ten minutes total. No sweat!

Tomorrow we are going to look at our next event Meditation. Keep praying for me as I pray for you.

Spiritual Triathlon - Part 2

Welcome to Day 2 of your Spiritual Triathlon. Today we are going to look at our first event – Prayer. Often times I believe that we as Christians take prayer for granted. Think about it 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year we can go before the creator of the universe with out needs, desires, questions, fears, and praises. Nowhere else do we have this type of access. Try waking your spouse up every hour on the hour just to talk and see what happens. But with God when I wake up at three in the morning worried about an upcoming expense or decision I can go to Him in prayer and give Him all my worry so I can go back to sleep! How awesome is our God!?!

There are several examples of prayers given in the Bible. For the sake of our Spiritual Triathlon, we are going to focus on individual, private prayer the type shown to us by Jesus in Matthew Chapter 6. This gives us the simplest of outlines for prayer. Read the passage and the review the notes I have made below.

Vs 9 Recognize God for who he is – The one and only God of creation, the God of Abraham, The God of Paul, The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Vs 10 Pray that His will be done. Often that means setting aside our desires and focusing on what it is that He wants. As you grow spiritually you will start to see that your will and His are becoming the same.

Vs 11 Pray for our needs. This is harder than it sounds. In America we have become so spoiled it is difficult to pray for our daily bread when we have a refrigerator full of food. We have become so self reliant that we easily deceive ourselves into thinking that we don’t need God any more. God wants us to pray to him about everything we need and want, no matter how big or small. Start making a list of things that you need or those around you need and pull it out as a reminder when you pray. And don’t forget to say “thank you” when He meets those needs!

Vs 12 If we expect God to forgive us then we should be willing to forgive those who have offended us. Easy to say, hard to do. Remember forgiveness always benefits the forgiver more than the person being forgiven

Vs 13 Ask for deliverance from evil. As we travel through this world we will travel through some valleys, it is God who can free us from them.

This is a time of concentrated prayer, not the unceasing prayers that many of us do through out the day. If you are not currently praying daily start by spending just 5 minuets alone with God in simple prayer each day. You can and will increase it as time goes by. Start small and build. Find a quiet place free of distractions where you can be alone with God. Don’t worry about your wording or “flowery” speech just talk to God. Tell Him what scares you. Tell Him what you love about Him. Ask Him what he wants from you. Ask Him for his help with what ever it is you are going through. Go to Him as a child goes to their parent. You will find out very quickly that 5 min is not enough time.

Spiritual Triathlon - Part 1

Do you want to a relationship with Jesus that is closer than you could ever imagine? Then “run” with me as I “run” my Spiritual Triathlon! A traditional triathlon is comprised of running, swimming, and biking our Spiritual Triathlon will comprise three spiritual events, prayer, scripture reading, and meditation.

The first step to running a successful triathlon is to get your heart checked out by a doctor and in our Spiritual Triathlon it will be necessary to have the Great Physician take a close look at the condition of your heart as well. What is the condition of your heart? In order to successfully run the race you will need a heart that has been totally turned over to Jesus, meaning you have allowed him to come into your heart and forgive you of you sins. If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior I encourage you to email me at Jay_McCaig@juno.com so I can give you the information you need to make an informed decision about your relationship with Christ.

With that taken care of some other things to keep in mind as you train are;

1. Start slow and build – Most of us could not get up right now and go run a marathon, we recognize that we are not physically able without lots of training to complete such an endeavor. The same is true with our spiritual events. If you are not already an avid Bible reader it is impractical to think that you can sit down and read it for an hour on your first day.

2. Monitor you progress – Keep a diary of you progress as you go. This is good for looking back on you progress and keeping you motivated when the going gets tough.

3. Don’t quit – Persistence is what separates the successful from weak. What would have happened if Noah had gotten tired of building the ark and quit halfway through? Or if Paul had given up planting churches because he was tired of the persecutions?

4. When you stumble get back up – Notice I said when not if. There will come a day when something keeps you from your training, don’t let this be the end of your training, just start again where you left off the next day.

Good luck, I am praying for you to be successful. Tomorrow we will look at our first event – Prayer.