Day 18: Training for Spiritual Races
As you begin to spend time with God, settle yourself somewhere quiet and comfortable. Take a few deep breaths. Spend a few moments gathering your thoughts, becoming aware of God’s presence with you and in you.
Journal for 5 minutes on yesterday’s experiment of praying without ceasing. What did you notice and learn? What challenged you? Did God say anything to you throughout the day?
Then, begin today’s devotional.
Read: Matthew 4:1-11
Josh is a runner. He has a race in two months and needs to begin to prepare. He steps into this season of preparation and chooses to do various kinds of workouts. As he is doing this, he takes almost no days off. As he gets further into his training, he finds that his daily runs are getting easier and easier, although he may be a bit sore at first.
Josh is learning how his body works under pressure and how to respond when he is tired. Even the day of this race, he gets up early and goes for a short run to warm up. All of his preparation was not so that he could sit around and be comfortable. The preparation was to push his body to a new level of performance.
Many of us have had a spiritual race day, where one day life hit us hard—so hard that we doubted our faith. I imagine that if Josh had not trained for his race at all, he would have felt like a bad runner after the race. He would have made it a little ways and then begun hurting, feeling out of breath, and certain that his legs were going to fall off. But, because of proper preparation, he was ready to compete.
Looking at the life of Jesus, we see that He had spiritual race days, such as His temptation in the desert. Jesus did not go to the wilderness and rest for 40 days. He prepared. He was disciplined. He spent time doing ‘workouts’—mainly prayer and fasting—so that His spirit would be prepared for the ‘race’ that was ahead of him.
Many of us view ourselves as poor followers of Jesus because we are not training for these spiritual races. Then, when trials come, we feel as though we are bad at handling them. However, when we commit to training, especially through the discipline of prayer and fasting, we can respond to the enemy as Jesus did—with truth. Jesus wasn’t quick to combat the enemy just because He was the Son of God. He was quick because of proper training.
Prayer: Jesus, help me to train well. Show me the value of prayer and fasting and how they are able to prepare me for the days when I must face temptation. I don’t want to get to the finish line tired and out of shape anymore. I want to discipline my spirit and compete well for You. Amen.
Today’s Experiment: Identify something in your life that you need to be prepared for spiritually—something that is either a challenge, a trial, a big decision, etc. Choose to fast from one meal today, and spend that time in the Word and prayer, listening to how God wants to prepare you for what’s ahead.
By Caleb Smith, Student Leader – Prayer and Life Groups