"Don't Get Ahead of Me!"

Have any of you done the P90X program? Or watched portions of it? Tony Horton, the developer and instructor of the P90X work out regime, has an off the cuff, unusual but very fun style of instructing.

On some routines, he lets us work out at our own pace. On other routines, like the ab ripper X routine, he insists we follow his count as we work through an exercise.

Take Scissor Abs. The legs are poised in an L shape. One up, one down. Tony's count, we switch legs. The down leg goes up, the up leg goes down. And you hold each switch for a second or two.

Tony says, "Don't get a head of me. Switch on my count."

Why? Because he's leading us in a designed routine intent on strengthening our abdominal muscles. There's no point in doing it if we fly through it and don't generate any resistance or tension.

Many, many times, God directs us in a like manner. "Don't get a head of me." It's not that we are stagnant, or sidelined, but we are moving forward by His direction.

Far to often, we think the go ahead from God means we take off on our own, and work at our own speed and pace. And we miss out on so many essential criteria.

Take prayer and the Word. We get up, breeze through a devotional or our daily Bible reading, offer up a bit of prayer and we're off. We're doing our discipline, our routine, but... are we accomplishing anything.

It hurts my abs when Tony holds us in a position for a few seconds. I'm so glad to hear him call, "Switch." But keeping with him has physically changed my body. For the better. I'm not ready for swimwear modeling, but you get my meaning here.

What if we approached God like our exercise routines? What if you heard God saying, "Don't get ahead of me. Okay, switch." What if we purposed to run with Him rather than ahead, or behind, or not at all.

God does want us to run with Him. Did you know that? We're not to be spectators, or sideliners. But He also wants to accomplish something in our hearts and minds as we run, and labor with Christ.

Are you ahead of Him? Are you running with instead of ahead. Where are you in the process? Can you take a few extra minutes and linger with Him in the Word and prayer?

Beloved, it's time to develop spiritual muscle. It's time to reshape and sculpt our inner man with the love and Word of God.

What's your P90X commitment for the Lord in 2011?