How does my get fit plan sound to you?
What? I must make it personal? You mean only my own effort, sweat and sore muscles will produce the results I am looking for?
Unfortunately, my fitness plan is how many people plan to get spiritually fit, yet, like physical fitness, we must make our spiritual fitness personal or it will not have the results we seek.
I Timothy 4: 7b-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.”
I must personally spend time in prayer and learning from God’s word. But, just like a person will not get fit working out for one hour each morning and eating junk food the rest of the day, I need to do more then check off a “quiet time” each morning, to be godly; my life must support living out what God is teaching me.
Training, both physical and spiritual, requires self-discipline in order to create habits that become a foundation for reaching the goal set before me. Training to be godly will at times be just pure self-discipline, but it will become a habit, even a need, once I’ve been trained by it.
Getting myself into the right environment to be godly is only the first step in training myself to be godly. I must train myself to be godly. Through personal effort of seeking, listening, doing, I will begin to see results of godliness in my own life.