Crash Course to Appreciating Your First Love – Part 3

Our family recently escaped for a week of vacation. There were lots of daily routines we couldn’t wait to put on hold for a week. Unfortunately, workouts were not one of them. For as long as I can remember, trips away rarely mean a vacation from workouts for the Conlees. This trip was no exception.With two football players and a lacrosse player among us, I had higher hopes than usual to avoid physical pain. Certainly, the teenagers could serve as substitute workout partners for my sweet man. The first day, my plan worked. The boys decided it would be good to keep in shape and they joined Chris. Unfortunately, the elder Conlee out-paced one of them. That was the last of their participation and I was up for the rest of the week.If you’d asked me prior to this week, I would’ve told you I was in decent shape. Not great, but not bad. I run three times a week and use some weight machines on a consistent basis. After this week, however, I realized how much effort I exert to make my workouts as comfy as possible. If it’s outside the 70º-80º range, you’ll find me on a treadmill enjoying the air conditioning of the YMCA. The 90º sun on the pavement felt so much harder. Even a round of air squats had me in pain the next day.As we round out my mini “priority time” refresher, I couldn’t help but see the analogy between my lame exercise routine and the way we cut corners in our walk with the Lord. Last week, we looked at Focused Thinking and Personal Application. If you complete these important elements while you’re in God’s Word, that’s terrific… but you’re working out in the air conditioning. It’s the Interactive Prayer and Life Journaling elements that can take what you’re learning and see it change your life. Let me explain the nuts and bolts…These two components are interwoven into both Focused Thinking and Personal Application. It’s not a linear process of four steps. The Life Journaling starts with writing down your questions and answers of the passage. It continues on as you write your reflections of how God wants you to apply His truth. As I’m writing down my reflections, the Lord often convicts me. I stop and pray. This is where the Interactive Prayer kicks in. When I‘m done praying, I get back to journaling and applying truth.Now, why do Interactive Prayer and Life Journaling matter? Let me tell you from my own priority time. Last week, one of my applications was to trust God and not live in fear. I mentioned that I needed to begin thanking God. As I went back and looked at my journal today, I was grateful I had written that conviction down. Since my last blog posted, three Memphis teenagers have been tragically killed. In my own strength, I could fret and worry even more than I already do. Instead, I was reminded from my very own time with the Lord that He has spoken into that area of my life. I can trust the Lord. I can lift up the families that are grieving and storm the throne on their behalf instead of being consumed with my own selfish thoughts. We truly are not guaranteed tomorrow. I want to be useful for the Kingdom, not stuck in fear. It would’ve been so easy for me to forget how God had addressed this issue with me if I hadn’t written it down.What about you? Can you look back and see where having a record of God’s activity has helped you be able to apply what He has spoken to you that you might otherwise have forgotten? I’d love to hear…