It's very deceptive to look at how much muscle gain you've achieved in the moments after a workout. The blood flow to the muscles means that the muscles look bigger (and more impressive!) than they actually are (and will be later in the day). Following a workout, the body needs nutrients (particularly protein) to rebuild the muscle fibres that are torn during exercise. If it gets these nutrients, over the next 48 hours, the muscle will repair itself, and grow to a larger, stronger size. This happens most effectively, as I mentioned in one of those entries, when the body is given time to rest - if you return to the gym and work on the same muscle group the following day, the body has not had time to repair itself, so muscle growth is inhibited.
So... linking that into our spirituality, perhaps it's not the moments immediately following a "workout" (whether that is anything from a ministry experience to personal disciplines) that show the true results. Nor is it the day after (when perhaps our spiritual muscles are hurting and in need of nutrients and rest). Rather, it is a couple of days later that we should be able to see the results of our exercise - but even more likely it will be after weeks of repeated exercise that the effects will be shown.
For me, that's a big lesson to learn, because I can be seduced by the importance of an event, a devotional time, etc, if I look at it in the moments immediately following its occurrence. Instead, I need to take time and reflect on the impact over the days (even weeks) following the event, in order to see what impact it has really had, and whether there is long-term growth and strength coming as a result.
