God, my Personal Trainer: "Drop and give me 10!"

When we need healing, we often go to prayer seeking God's quick action as a physician and surgeon.

However, in my own faith experience, when I go to God in prayer about an area of my life that needs healing and wholeness, God acts much like a fitness trainer at the gym rather than a physician in treating the problem directly.

For example, when my knees hurt from running, a physical fitness instructor tells me to strengthen my quadriceps, hamstrings, ankles and calves. In turn, the strengthening of all of these other muscle groups allows my knees to more properly carry my weight distribution as intended.

When I go to God in prayer for certain issues, it is often true in my life that He speaks to me and grants insight and grace and discipline in other unrelated areas. Once all the other regions of my body are toned, then the broken, bloodied, and disordered bits seem to both heal and be more rightly ordered relative to the rest of my body systems.

When I turn my emotions to God in prayer, He often teaches me about discipline, order, faithfulness, and service in charity. After all of these other areas are strengthened and toned, it seems that somehow my emotional issues are healed.

Of course, healing and growing are cyclical processes, never ending. But it strikes me that the things I pray for often lead God to change me in seemingly unrelated ways I don't immediately equate with an answer to prayer. But like strengthening complementary muscles, the original issue is also treated with God's touch of grace.