I love to run, but I stopped when we moved to Albuquerque, because running is hard here! It’s the altitude, the heat, the dusty wind, and two kids who wake up way too early. A few months ago, I decided to make running a regular practice again. My current running goals are fairly freeform: choosing a time or a distance that seems right for the morning and trying to make it. However, previous experience suggests that to improve seriously will require a more structured workout plan that includes strength-training, long runs to challenge endurance, speed intervals, and stretching to increase flexibility and protect my body. That is true commitment and dedication!

Listen to what Paul said to his understudy Timothy about about training:

“…train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:7-8

Developing a regular practice of exercise is beneficial, but establishing godly practices builds spiritual muscles with benefits that extend way beyond the physical body. We get a glimpse of these benefits in Daniel chapter 6. Long before being dumped into a den of hungry lions, Daniel had established a regular practice of prayer. He “got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously (vs. 10).” Daniel had a structured prayer plan, which included endurance work (king Darius noted that Daniel served his God “continually,” vs. 16. Daniel was committed!), speed intervals (Daniel went to pray as soon as he heard about the king’s law, vs. 10), and stretching (Daniel’s faith in God did not waiver in the lions’ den, but protected him, so that when he was taken out “… no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God,” vs. 23).

Truth be told, my prayer practice is often as freeform as my current running practice. I pray “organically” when something comes to mind. The trouble with this kind of prayer, however, is that it is aimless and is often reduced to “…bringing God [my] list of wants, desires, and needs” rather than “… a radical act of worship that reminds [me] of who [I am], who God is, and what life is all about.”*

So, developing a regular and growing prayer practice may require structure. I inherently bristle against that, but it can look like so many things: some people journal, some set alarms on their phone (a friend of mine called them “prayer crickets”), others have dedicated space in their home set aside for prayer; some pray scripture, while others turn to timeless books of prayer like the Book of Common Prayer. Interestingly, the main thing that is drawing me back to running is the connection it has for me with prayer. When my feet are moving, my heart is praying.

Yet, here is the most important difference between developing a running practice and a prayer practice. To improve in running requires more self-effort, more work, and better technique. To develop a prayer practice as Daniel did has nothing to do with saying the right words or using the right techniques, but has everything to do with surrender. It means practicing humility, readily confessing sin, regularly admitting dependence on God and my inability to do right on my own. It means regularly training my eyes to get off of my self-centered cares and fix them on God and His character.

~ Erin Butzin 

* From Paul Tripp’s New Morning Mercies, June 12 devotional