Applications for Life: On Your Phone. In the Bible.

Applications for smart phones are all the rage. It’s amazing the number of new applications that continue to be created for phones like the iPhone. According to a recent advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, there are ‘over 100,000 applications for just about anything.’

Smart Phone Applications

Over the Christmas holiday, both of my young adult sons visited me and I enjoyed getting up to speed on how they were using the various applications on their phones. I suggested to my older son that he search and see if a dictation application was available for his iPhone and sure enough he found Dragon Dictation which is made by the same company of the software I occasionally use to capture my thoughts and blog posts and articles such as I am doing now. He has since found the use of that application very practical and convenient.

The advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that I’ve seen on a few occasions reads — “New year. New resolutions. New apps.” As I thought about this advertisement I tried to think of a parallel comparison that I could make for a blog entry. What quickly came to my mind was the fact that God has given us a guidebook with literally hundreds of thousands of principles that he would want us to apply to our lives, in the form of “applications.” With that in mind I thought this might be a helpful reminder for you to consider what biblical ‘applications’ you might want to re-address during this new year.

Over the course of the last several months I have frequently referred to a poster presentation that I made last June at the annual meeting of the Society for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University. For that presentation, I identified 41 Christian principles that I believe are health promoting. I thought it might be helpful to again refer to that document and encourage each of you to review those principles and see if you might identify some aspects of your faith that you might benefit from addressing in a more intentional way.

Biblical Principles

Just as the various applications on your mobile phone might assist you in aspects of your day-to-day life, many very important principles of the Christian faith have been provided us by God so that we might be able to live a full and rewarding life. Consider these few examples:

• Believe the Bible is truth.
• Receive God’s love.
• Believe in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
• Believe the Holy Spirit lives in you and empowers you.
• Remain connected to Jesus.
• Spend time in God’s presence.
• Do not worry or be anxious.
• Forgive.
• Renew your mind with God’s truths.
• Humble yourself before God.

The listing above is just a partial list of many key principles that God has provided us in the Bible to direct us in how we’re to live our lives.

It’s a new year. I suspect many of you now are a little more serious and have a deeper resolve to live life in alignment with values they are very important to you. As many of you may have recently downloaded new applications for your mobile phones, I encourage you also to spend a little more time reading God’s guidebook for living, the Bible, so that your resolve to apply his many principles for living a more abundant life in 2010 might be strengthened.

Questions to Consider:

What faith-related principles do you resolve to continue to practice in your day-to-day living?

Are there any biblical principles that you’ve not attended to over the last few years that you want to incorporate into your life?

Related Scriptures:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Psalm 139:23-24

Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. Psalm 26:2

Related Resources:

Article – His Instruction Manual: Our Guidebook for Living

Poster Presentation – The Spirituality – Health Connection: Why It Exists addressing 41 health-promoting principles of the Christian faith and 194 scripture references.

More Consistent Exercise – A Resolution for 2010?

Why do I exercise?

It makes me feel better.

It helps me manage my stress.

It helps me control my weight.

I like the way I feel after I shower and dress.

It helps me think more clearly.

It energizes me.

It helps me take better care of my body, God’s temple.  (1 Corinthians 6:19)

It keeps me fit so I can do other things that require a degree of fitness.

I enjoy being outside when I run.

Perhaps you have made a resolution to become more fit or to be more consistent with exercise. Over the years as I’ve worked with many, many other people to help them with their physical activity regimen, I’ve seen that the more important the benefits they received from exercising the more likely they were to keep at it.

As you head into 2010, and if being physically active is important to you,  I’d urge you to take a few minutes and make a list of the reasons why you’d like to be more physically active and more fit. Put on this list the reasons that are very personal to you as I have done above. Then you might consider checking off the top three reasons why you’d like to be more consistent with physical activity and focus on these most significant benefits. It may also be helpful to review the level of importance that these benefits are her to you. The more important they are to you and the greater value you place on them, the more likely they will truly be a motivation for you to exercise.

Now, get in that workout ……….. and make it a great day!