September 11

"One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." (Luke 6:12 NIV)

A well known female football profile, Nilla Fischer, agreed to an interview in one of Sweden’s major newspapers, Dagens Nyheter, in the spring of 2007. She already had her sights set on the world football championship in China and the article described the long road toward the goal and the intensive training program that she and the other players must commit to.

It begins with an alarm clock that rings at 5.00 o’clock in the morning. It includes a ninety minute power walk four times a week, and “lonesome monotone fat burning along Malmö’s dark streets with morning paper deliverers and some empty green bus as the only, and not particularly enthusiastic audience.”

It’s the dream about China that gets her out of bed “… at every physical training session I focus on China” she says. And then what might be the articles most important comment: “Few have seen the necessary training; many have observed and noted the results”.

I don’t know what your spiritual training program looks like. I don’t know how much time you spend with the Lord, alone and without enthusiastic onlookers. I don’t know what time you get up in the morning. Nor do I know how strong the dream lives in you that one day God’s Kingdom will break through, and you will be a part of it. But I know one thing that your spiritual results in your life are in direct proportion to your spiritual training program.

Prayer

Lord, help me to prioritize as you prioritized, when You chose to regularly to seek solitude in order to have communion with Your Father in Heaven. Help me to set aside time – sufficient time – to be with You in prayer today.