True character is revealed not by what a man does when people are watching but by what he does when nobody is around.

Point Man – Week #6 A Bible study on a man leading his family based on the Steve Farrar book.

Sorry I missed doing a lesson last week but the last few weeks were busy and last weekend was Easter Sunday and the significance of Easter is the basis of all Christianity.

A couple of weeks ago we talked about how God’s word is food to our spiritual being to strengthen us just like food you eat strengthens our physical body.
This week we will talk about “aerobic kneeling”. Kneeling means to to go down or rest on one or both knees.

Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

As we proceed forward here are 3 assumptions to be made:

1. The Christian Life is not a 100-yard dash. It is a marathon.
2. In the Christian Life, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
3. Spiritual self-starters train aerobically.

Men who want to lead their families effectively must become spiritual self-starters. We previously covered the first minimum requirement for being a spiritual self-starter and that is meditating on Scripture. Now we will cover the second requirement.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Living the Christian Life is not a short race, it is a marathon – an endurance race.
Marathoners don’t need starting blocks, they just need to finish the race. In the Christian Life, what is important is not how you start but how you finish.

Two aspects of training your body is strength and cardio training. But for longevity, cardio or endurance training should be your life long goal. This improves all life long aspects of your body. In the spiritual realm, the exercise is aerobic kneeling or prayer.

Prayer is to the soul what exercise is to the body. A spiritual self-starter is a man who is in good spiritual shape by:

1. Feeding his spirit by reading the Scriptures
2. Consistently spending time in prayer

Prayer is the exercise of the man who is a spiritual self-starter. A marathon runner trains and eats correctly as the Christian Life should be balanced with reading the scriptures and spending time in prayer. The man who studies the Bible without praying will develop a good mind with a cold heart. The man who prays without knowing Scripture will consistently pray outside the will of God.

So how often does one have to exercise prayer to stay in good spiritual shape? Well the Bible does not say how much in prayer we need to be, but we can apply the same physical requirements to our spiritual. If exercising 30-40 minutes 3 to 4 times a week will keep us in good condition then we should at least be in prayer and reading scripture this same amount of time per week. Ideally, just as we feed our bodies every day, it should not be difficult to spend 10 minutes in prayer asking God to reveal himself to you in His words before reading the scriptures for 30-40 minutes, then pray another 10 minutes afterwards asking that the words you read will speak truth into your life. That is 365 hours in one year you will spend one on one time with the Lord.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 “ ….. 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.

What is being said here is physical training is important but spiritual training is more important because