Tim’s Gym

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1 Tim 4: 7-10
(The Message),
Paul says to Timothy: 
Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. You can count on this. Take it to heart. This is why we’ve thrown ourselves into this venture so totally. We’re banking on the living God, Saviour of all men and women, especially believers.

The Program

The Program

Find some Gym Buddies

Gather some trusted friends. The Bible knows nothing about personal spiritual growth that doesn’t happen in community. Powerful graces God has for us come to us as “gifts of the Spirit” that we give and receive in community.  

The goal of God is a “new humanity”.  The “Church” is where he displays his wisdom and love.  We are members of a body.  Which practically means – you need a posse.

Who are you looking for?

People of roughly similar social skills.   This is not a place for mentoring.  It is about one-anothering.   This is a growth process where we need to go deep.   If you are worrying about who might be triggered or offended when you speak plainly, they or you are in the wrong group.

People who will commit to meeting together at an agreed time for six weeks.   

People who can keep their mouths shut.  What happens in the small group, stays in the small group.  

The people DON’T need to be in the same place spiritually.  In fact, our experience is that, so long as people have similar social skills and can be trusted to maintain the cohesion of the group, a diversity of experience adds a lot of colour and enthusiasm to the meetings. 

In processes like these we are all just brothers and sisters. All wanting to grow. All messing up. All caught between the glory and the shame. All redeemed. All jolly grateful for that! We are all on a journey together.   

They do need to prepare their personal plan for the period and share it with the rest of you to ensure there is clarity and intentionality.

Down to Business

We will talk about the practices in a moment. Before we do – there are some things you need to understand.

Priorities:  None of the practices we will undertake should slow you down at work or create friction at home.   God has called us to both work and home, and if those priorities will be compromised by any practice, it is the practice you need to change – not the people around you. Just let your small group know how you can implement the practices that will work for you.

Building Forward: For most people, you will realise that some of these practices are already in practice. This is never a totally new thing. It is growth – building on from where we are already up to.  

Accountability: Holding yourself accountable to your small group is a key to success.  Most of us who have done similar things, know the power of that weekly check in. The fellowship spurs us on, and while we are apart, we offer our discomfort, headaches, unfulfilled cravings, etc to God as a prayer for the others on the journey with us. 

Pain: Do expect this to bite, especially at first. You only know the depth of your entanglement when you start saying no to yourself. That said, all of this is surprisingly non-invasive. For many of us – the time we no longer spend on screens is far more than is needed for the exercises. The physical exercise allows for better sleep and fasting creates better health.  Experience says this costs a bit at first – but long before the end of the process, you will feel more alive and have more time than you had before.  

There will be “fails”.   For example, the phone rings and the day evaporates in crisis management, or severe illness interrupts everything.  When that happens just tell your small group and pick up again.  This is a gentle process, just like growing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. 

You will go to all sorts of places.  A little note about discerning spirits is needed.  If something leads you to peace, calm, hope, courage, action, empowerment, better relationships, greater morality – that’s a good thing and should be pursued. (Philippians 4:8)

Thoughts are likely to occur, and things are likely to happen that lead to condemnation, fear, unhealthy regret, uncertainty, feeling blocked, stifled or immobilised.  If it leads to confusion and inactivity, passive aggression etc – it is bad.  NO MATTER HOW BIBLICAL OR SPIRITUAL IT SOUNDS IN YOUR HEAD.  The Devil will use everything – including scripture and your self-talk to steal your growth in grace, rob you of the things that make life and ultimately kill everything good in you. (Luke 4:1-13, Galatians 5:19-26)

When you are in the grip of these negative things, you need your small gym buddies very much. It is their job to speak grace, peace, hope, love to you and pray you back to safety.

Go Slowly: This is not likely to be the breakthrough moment in your life. It is an opportunity to try out some spiritual practices and exercises that might be new to you and see what helps.  Those are the things you will take forward and fold into your daily, weekly, or annual routine.  You are aiming for lifelong growth in grace.  Some of you will start from a dry place and feel you have not made much progress over the period.  

If that is so – you have done yourself great spiritual good.  If you realise the disorganisation of your mind, the laziness of your hours, the lusts that hold you, the resentment and bitterness you don’t want to put down etc, then you are a hundred miles further than you were.  You now have definition for the journey ahead, and almost certainly a growing desire to start that road.  This is the old hymn in play “T’was grace that taught my heart to fear”.   For your comfort, you will almost certainly find a lot more grace than that in this process. 

Enjoy The Ride: There will be moments when silent prayer is all you want to do, and the time will be gone before you know it as you sit with the Lord.  Don’t struggle to “catch up” or “finish”.  Just let that be a day when you and the Lord truly enjoyed that.  Other times, you might be caught in a scripture passage.  Your imagination takes you into the scene and you spend the entire time wandering about in the story. Wonderful. Journal that and get on with the day. 
The goal is the knowledge of God.  If he is revealing himself in some wonderful way to you, it seems silly to say to go someplace else.  

The Practices

These are the practices/disciplines we will follow. It’s time to decide if any of these are not workable for you and delete them from your program if that is so. Also, it’s time to work out exactly how you will apply each of these. Remember that you may need medical advice before embarking on some of these.

1. Fasting
Choosing to no longer live to gratify the “flesh”. “Sowing to the Spirit”
Fasting forces a choice – self-gratification or self-denial. It helps us understand how addicted we are to pleasing ourselves and gratifying every whim. It reminds us that a greater simplicity will clear the way for a deeper focus and intentionality about the things that matter.
Practically, this means denying all snacks between meals, dessert, and alcohol every day except Sunday, and selecting two days each week as more intentional fasts. The days and the nature of the fast can be chosen by each person.
Suggestions are:

• Fasting from dinner the night before through to breakfast the morning after the day.
• Skipping one or two meals during the day.
• Limiting kilojoule intake over the entire day.
• Or something else

2. Exercise: Body, Mind and Spirit in harmony
Each participant engages in some physical exercise. Ideally, it should be somewhat strenuous, and at least a couple of times during the week. It may not sound like a “spiritual” exercise – but tired bodies, distracted minds, and lazy wills will not produce optimal mental or spiritual outcomes.
Your exercise routine should be clearly defined so that the others in the small group can check in about whether it happened. You should seek medical advice before doing anything unusual.

3. Abstinence
To quieten the noise in our minds giving the still small voices of the Spirit greater scope to be heard.
No recreational screen time or podcasts during the period. That includes social media, TV, web searches, streaming etc. If it doesn’t relate to work or necessary activity (banking, staying in touch with family, etc) it is avoided. Each person defines the extent of this practice and shares it with their small group.
If people have other items they want brought under control (eg: smoking, reactive behavioural patterns, etc) these can be folded into the program – but only to a realistic and achievable level. Use the 1% concept for these and seek medical or other appropriate support.

4. Transparency & Fellowship
We don’t think of this as a “practice”, but it is. It’s not just getting together and talking about God. It’s growing trust so that we can go to the places we would rather not, in safety and find the incredible joy of freedom. Fellowship is not friendship. It is what happens when a spirit that pulses with the life of Jesus meets another similar spirit – and the two ignite one another.

5. Prayer
Each Monday through Saturday, there are two prayer times.
A 45 minute minimum time set aside for personal prayer – not in company with anyone else. If couples already pray together using Lectio 365, this can be maintained as a part of the prayer rhythm. The guided exercise is conducted in solitude (alone). pray together,
Components of this prayer time:
1) The daily Lectio 365 (including the time they recommend in intentional silent prayer)
2) A guided spiritual exercise

6. Journaling
How to Journal.
Buy a book that you like the feel of and that suits your holy purpose for it. Your journal is like a friend you talk to after prayer – to write down what occurs to you, the big ideas, the revelation of God to you, the action you want to take as a result of what has happened etc. There is no set format for a journal entry.
Some people write as a prayer – “Lord today I heard you saying ….. It’s too good to be true…”
Some write as a prophecy – “My child you heard me say to you….. Now I need you to…”
Some write as a reflection – “I’ve never seen that passage like that. I get the idea that…”
Some draw, some doodle. It doesn’t matter. The idea is that you have a growing compendium of your walk with God.

• Something you can revisit later in the day you write it.
• Something you can use in preparation for the small group.
• Something that will be invaluable in times of major reflection or life planning.

Journaling is part of a larger cycle. Prayer leads to reflection (that’s the journaling piece). Reflection Leads to action. Action leads back to prayer.

7. End of Day Assessment
A short “examen” at the end of the day. 5 – 15 minutes.
For those unfamiliar with this prayer – the evening Lectio will provide a guide.
The questions to ask are:

• Where was God at work in me or through me today?
• How did he teach, guard, or love me?
• How did his Spirit minister through me?
• Is there an apology I need to make to God at the end of this day?

Take the time to NOTICE that God is with you and the movement of your life toward or away from grace. In this time, the journal from the earlier prayer time can be reviewed, to lock in what happened, give thanks, continue forward in prayer or whatever seems appropriate.

8. Retreat
Three weeks into the process there will be a one day retreat around silence, solitude and service as practices. The hope is that this will train you in the ways of silent prayer, build your awareness of the presence of God and make sure you don’t lose the idea that all of this growth has to lead to mission somehow.

9. Feasting
Christ is Risen!
Each Sunday sees the relaxation of the practices/disciplines. It’s a feast day to celebrate the resurrection and the presence of the risen Lord.

Next Steps
It’s time to write down the details of how you plan to engage with these exercises. Email them to your small group. Meet to pray for one another and make the promise that you will adopt this lifestyle for the next six weeks.

Preparation

Prior to the start of the 40-day program (Start on Ash Wednesday if doing the program for Lent/Easter)

• Recruit your small groups.  
• Make sure you understand what you have just read.
• Write up your personal plan about how you will engage with the practices for the six weeks.   
• Seek Medical/other advice.
• A meeting or meetings with the small group to share the nature of the practices each member will undertake.  

From Ash Wednesday to the end of the following Sunday, further preparations will be needed: 

• Download and get comfortable with the Lectio 365 app.    
• Prepare you journal for use.
• Select your private place of prayer.
• Ensure you have web access to the daily prayer exercise.
• Intercede for the others in your small group.  
• Negotiations with housemates, spouse and anyone else who needs to know about the upcoming six weeks of modified lifestyle. (None of the practices should adversely affect primary relationships.  For example, If there is a family movie night coming up that means a lot to the children, it should be attended – though the small group should know that an exception is being made.)  
• On the following Monday – the journey begins. Adopt the lifestyle you have decided, meet weekly with your small group, and celebrate everything the Lord does as a result. Don’t forget to feast on Sundays.