As we go through these tough times right now, such as dealing with covid-19, it can get us down and stressed out. With churches not being able to hold services at this time, it makes it hard on everyone especially if you're a person of habit such as myself. I was feeling the effects of this and was needing the motivation to prevent me from backsliding. I went to the Lord in prayer and HE reminded me something I read in a book recently. The book was "Meb For Mortals" written by Meb Keflezighi with Scott Douglas. In one part of this book, it talks about to "Prehab not rehab". GOD was reminding me that I could apply this to my life now. Rehabilitation is the act of restoring something to its original state. Prehab simply means to do things to prevent from having to rehab.
When I prehab in my personal life, I like to think positive and learn from my life lesson. I focus on my weaknesses and try to strengthen them. One of my weaknesses is vulnerable muscles and tendons. I put time and effort to strengthen them, so I do not have to "rehab" later on. We can do the same in our own Christian walk. My personal Christian weakness would be reading.
One way I have learned to motivate myself in this area is to find Christian athletes and read about them. A few examples are Ryan Hall, Tony Dungy, Meb Keflezighi, and Josh Cox. They all talk about how God helped them with their hobbies. Before reading anything, I pray to GOD to help me focus on what I am reading and how to use it. This then motivates me to read the bible to see the verses that helped them. I would encourage you to find a Christian that is involved in your hobby and read about them.
Another prehab method for me is my mental state of mind. If I always think negative or about how weak I am, then I will lose motivation and think I am never good enough. We do need to know what our weaknesses are to be able to get better, but do not dwell on them. We will never be perfect (only GOD is), but as a child of God, we can have hope. When feeling negative, pray to God for him to help you see the positives.
We all have life lessons that we can learn from. Some of them are good and some of them are bad. Our growth comes from how we handle them. When I was younger, I had a very bad accident. I could have given up and lived a unhappy life. But instead, I was saved by God and did not give up. I went on to play sports and become very active in church. Without this bad experience, I may never have found God or to help others. Another example would be oversleeping. When I was younger I would over sleep and not make it to church and would feel bad all day about it. I learned from this by making changes in my daily life and prioritizing. My wife has a saying that she tries to live by, "Always find the positive in the negative." What she means by this is that a positive usually comes from a negative. It may not happen that day or even a year from the day, but you will see it. We may not always see what God is doing, but he will eventually show us. We need to learn to trust God and his timing.
In conclusion, our main goal is to prevent rehab by practicing prehab. We should strive to be a Christian that is a leader to the believers and the nonbelievers. One who follows Christ and motivates others to do so. We should love others as GOD loves us. "For God so loved the word that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever lasting life." (John 3:16) We should not let our weaknesses, mental state, or life lessons cause us to have to rehab our Christian life, but to motivate us to be the best we can be and practice prehab.
Prehab not Rehab
"Prehab not Rehab"
By:
Noah Campbell
with
Jessica Campbell
As we go through these tough times right now, such as dealing with covid-19, it can get us down and stressed out. With churches not being able to hold services at this time, it makes it hard on everyone especially if you're a person of habit such as myself. I was feeling the effects of this and was needing the motivation to prevent me from backsliding. I went to the Lord in prayer and HE reminded me something I read in a book recently. The book was "Meb For Mortals" written by Meb Keflezighi with Scott Douglas. In one part of this book, it talks about to "Prehab not rehab". GOD was reminding me that I could apply this to my life now. Rehabilitation is the act of restoring something to its original state. Prehab simply means to do things to prevent from having to rehab.
When I prehab in my personal life, I like to think positive and learn from my life lesson. I focus on my weaknesses and try to strengthen them. One of my weaknesses is vulnerable muscles and tendons. I put time and effort to strengthen them, so I do not have to "rehab" later on. We can do the same in our own Christian walk. My personal Christian weakness would be reading.
One way I have learned to motivate myself in this area is to find Christian athletes and read about them. A few examples are Ryan Hall, Tony Dungy, Meb Keflezighi, and Josh Cox. They all talk about how God helped them with their hobbies. Before reading anything, I pray to GOD to help me focus on what I am reading and how to use it. This then motivates me to read the bible to see the verses that helped them. I would encourage you to find a Christian that is involved in your hobby and read about them.
Another prehab method for me is my mental state of mind. If I always think negative or about how weak I am, then I will lose motivation and think I am never good enough. We do need to know what our weaknesses are to be able to get better, but do not dwell on them. We will never be perfect (only GOD is), but as a child of God, we can have hope. When feeling negative, pray to God for him to help you see the positives.
We all have life lessons that we can learn from. Some of them are good and some of them are bad. Our growth comes from how we handle them. When I was younger, I had a very bad accident. I could have given up and lived a unhappy life. But instead, I was saved by God and did not give up. I went on to play sports and become very active in church. Without this bad experience, I may never have found God or to help others. Another example would be oversleeping. When I was younger I would over sleep and not make it to church and would feel bad all day about it. I learned from this by making changes in my daily life and prioritizing. My wife has a saying that she tries to live by, "Always find the positive in the negative." What she means by this is that a positive usually comes from a negative. It may not happen that day or even a year from the day, but you will see it. We may not always see what God is doing, but he will eventually show us. We need to learn to trust God and his timing.
In conclusion, our main goal is to prevent rehab by practicing prehab. We should strive to be a Christian that is a leader to the believers and the nonbelievers. One who follows Christ and motivates others to do so. We should love others as GOD loves us. "For God so loved the word that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever lasting life." (John 3:16) We should not let our weaknesses, mental state, or life lessons cause us to have to rehab our Christian life, but to motivate us to be the best we can be and practice prehab.