Two Hours in Sixty Minutes

When I wore a younger man’s clothes, I was the minister at a church in Virginia. I was asked by the leader of the women’s ministry to give a talk to her group about prayer.  I said I would.  But I didn’t want to.  I didn’t know much about prayer.  I did not have a regular prayer life, nor was I consistent in devotional Bible reading.  I did some research, found a few salient quotes, and stumbled through the presentation, without using a single example from my own personal practice.  I vowed to change, and I did.

There are two common disciplines where many Christians struggle and want to do better:  Personal devotions and physical fitness.  In the 2021-2022 American Bible Society’s “State of the Bible” study, almost 1 in 5 churchgoers said they NEVER read the Bible.  And, in “Born Again Bodies” author Marie Griffith points out that in the United States, the practice of Christianity correlates positively with obesity. U.S. Christians are likely be overnourished physically and undernourished spiritually. 

Perhaps we can kill these two proverbial “birds” with one stone. Maybe there is a way to go from a sedentary “pew potato” who rarely moves, prays, or reads the Bible, to a well-balanced Christian who is healthy in both body AND soul?  The solution to MY problem is the one that I propose for others to consider:  COMBINE your physical and spiritual discipline.  

WALKING WITH THE LORD

Most of my personal devotion time is conducted while walking. I think that is Biblical.

“Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:22).

“Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9).

“Abraham answered, ‘The Lord, in whose presence I walk’” (Genesis 24:40)

 “Walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

I know that “walking with God” is likely being used metaphorically in these passages. It means MORE than literally “walking,” but might it be to our advantage to make SOME literal application of these exhortations? Many health authorities consider walking one of the most beneficial of exercises. Here is what happens when you walk:

1 min – blood flow elevates

5 mins – mood improves

10 mins – cortisol reduces

15 mins – blood sugar reduces

40 mins – fat burning begins

45 mins – overthinking reduces

60 mins – dopamine increases

There are many benefits to conducting your entire devotion time WHILE walking. 

First, this method redeems the time by multi-tasking (Ephesians 5:16). We are simultaneously increasing the quality of our lives both physically and spiritually. 

Secondly, walking removes many distractions.  If your house is anything like mine, it is a “distraction factory.”  There always seem to be projects, people and amusements that vie for my attention.  When we get away from the house, we get away from those types of distractions; what Jesus referred to as going “into your closet” (Matthew 6:6).

Thirdly, when we go outside to walk, we get closer to nature and when we’re closer to nature we often feel closer to God.  We’ll hear birds singing, squirrels barking and maybe see the sunrise.  The Creator draws near to us as we draw near to His creation.

What follows has been my daily practice for the last thirty years. I offer it as an example of A way that ONE person strives to “walk with the Lord.” My daily formulae is 20 minutes of prayer + 20 minutes of scripture + 20 minutes of Christian music = 60 minutes of walking with God.

Every morning at 6:00am, while it’s dark and quiet, I walk one mile to the softball park across the street from my house. On the way to the park, I pray through an expanded version of the Lord’s prayer. I use the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:9-12) because 1) It is easily memorized and 2) It can be used as a scalable pattern for prayer. When using it as a pattern, or template, for prayer, you can expand or contract it to fit the amount of time you have available to pray.  “Hallowed by your name” – LOVE. “Your Kingdom come” – INTERCESSION. “Give us this day” – REQUESTS. “Forgive our trespasses” – CONFESSION. “Lead us not into temptation” – PROTECTION.  I conclude this time by praying the 23^rd Psalm.  That amounts to roughly twenty minutes of prayer.  Once in the park, I walk/run five laps around the ballfield (one mile) while listening to the One Year Bible daily reading selections for that day on my earbuds (Youversion One Year Bible App). That is about twenty minutes of scripture listening. Then I walk back home while listening to Christian music. That is about twenty minutes of being “Filled with the Spirit by speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:18-19). If you’re doing the math, that is a total of one hour invested in moderate exercise AND one hour invested in spiritual devotions – and it’s the SAME one hour. In that way, I get TWO hours out of SIXTY minutes.

THE SPIRITUAL/PHYSICAL OVERLAP

“I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified” (I Corinthians 9:27).

Our bodies, our spirits, and the HOLY SPIRIT are intertwined. What we do with our bodies affects our spirit AND what we do with our spirit affects our bodies.  The Holy Spirit will help us control our flesh, but he won’t do it all FOR us. WE do it in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit won’t push me away from the dinner table after the 2^nd helping, I must do that. The H.S. won’t set my alarm clock an hour earlier so that I can listen to the Bible and pray while walking – I must do that.  The Holy Spirit will not discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should, I must do that.

Walking may not be possible for everyone, but it is accessible for most people.  And even those who are too elderly to walk, or face physical challenges, can usually do SOMETHING in the way of exercise. Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic, wrote about her friend Candy.  “Candy was a quadriplegic I knew in physical therapy.  Every day when they positioned our wheelchairs in front of weights and pulleys, I would sweat and strain while Candy only fiddled around. Recently I ran into her, and I was stunned to see how weak she looked. When I asked her about her exercises, she shrugged, ‘It’s just too much effort.’ I think about Candy when I meet Christians who want to grow but seem unable to move forward. Take it from me: growing in Christ involves hard work.  It requires effort to listen to God and then respond to his promises, rather than your feelings. It’s hard to pursue godly things while saying ‘no’ to fleshly desires. But Philippians 3:14 encourages us to, ‘press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’  Today, friend, press on. Because Jesus is the prize, and he is worth it.”

When we get up early instead of sleeping in, we’re telling our flesh that our SPIRIT is in control. When we GO TO BED early instead of staying up late to binge-watch that TV series or try to beat the next level of the videogame, we’re telling our flesh that our SPIRIT is in control.  When we walk, run, swim, bike, or garden instead of SITTING on the couch, we’re telling our flesh that our SPIRIT is in control. And we’re reaffirming to ourselves that, yes, we CAN do HARD things with God’s help.  

I will close with the words of the Apostle John: “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along” (III John 2:2).

Steve Jones has been the preaching minister at Vero Christian Church, Vero Beach Florida, since 2006.  Steve is a 1982 graduate of Central Florida Bible College.  He has been married to Tami (class of ’83) for forty-three years.  Steve and Tami have two children and six grandchildren, all of whom reside in Vero Beach.  Most of the scripture references in this lesson are from the New Living Translation.