Without this, you’ll always be a spiritual weakling …

What is your training regimen?

“My what?”

Your training regimen. Your specific activity you execute consistently and with self-discipline for your growth in godliness.

“Oh, well I have a devotional time every morning. See! I DO have one of those!”

No, I didn’t ask if you have a few moments for devotions, I asked what your training regimen is. Let’s step back and look at this …

“Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, TRAIN YOURSELF TO BE GODLY. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come,” 1 Timothy 4:7-8.

So what’s your TRAINING regimen?

You see, if we truly desire to be godly men and women, it doesn’t just happen. And just a 10-minute devotion over coffee in the morning won’t get you there. That would be like a man wanting to become an NFL Hall of Fame football player by watching 10 minutes of ESPN each day. Legendary football coach Tom Landry once said, “The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do, in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.” In other words, to put them through a regimen that molded them into great professionals.

Any of us could sit down and outline some kind of regimen that would spiritually challenge the socks off us. But the reason why we don’t, the reason why most of us DON’T have a regimen for training ourselves in godliness, is because there are things we don’t want to give up. It might be our time, it might be our passions, it might be our habits … whatever it is, there’s something we’re still selfish about that we’re not yet willing to relinquish.

M. Scott Peck captures the idea of this remaining bubble of selfishness in this excerpt from “The Road Less Traveled”:

“I spent much of my ninth summer on a bicycle. About a mile from our house the road went down a steep hill and turned sharply at the bottom. Coasting down the hill one morning, I felt my gathering speed to be ecstatic. To give up this ecstasy by applying brakes seemed an absurd self-punishment. So I resolved to simultaneously retain my speed and negotiate the corner. My ecstasy ended seconds later when I was propelled a dozen feet off the road into the woods. I was badly scratched and bleeding, and the front wheel of my new bike was twisted beyond use from its impact against a tree. I had been unwilling to suffer the pain of giving up my ecstatic speed in the interest of maintaining my balance around the corner. I’ve learned, however, that the loss of balance is ultimately more painful than the giving up required to maintain balance. It is a lesson I have continually had to relearn. As must everyone, for as we negotiate the curves and corners of our lives, we must continually give up parts of ourselves.”

What are you still hanging onto that keeps you from training and developing yourself for godliness? When will you give up the ecstasies of the world to fully become the godly man or woman you really could be?

Scotty