If you don’t train your desires, emotions, and thoughts to align with truth and integrity, they’ll align you with self-deception. Overcoming temptation requires training, not just will power!

Christianity’s not about settling into a comfort zone. It’s about rigorously training yourself to follow Jesus whatever the circumstances. Don’t just be a passive Christian spectator. “Train yourself to be godly.” 1 Timothy 1:7. If you’re not as close to Jesus as you once were, that might indicate that the way you’re approaching Christianity isn’t working.

Grace isn’t an excuse to avoid God’s discipleship training. Grace is hearing the call to sell it all for Jesus! Grace gets Christ in you, but it takes strenuous training to get yourself aligned with Christ. If you won’t train your free will to pursue and obey the risen Jesus, it will pursue and obey your own desires.

A Christian who doesn’t daily train to follow and obey the living Jesus is like an athlete who doesn’t train — very ineffective. The Bible’s the training manual for Christ-followers. Wear it out from frequent use. Then get another copy and do it again.

Someone who daily trains to follow and obey the living Jesus will experience a different kind of Christianity than someone who merely sits thru sermons. Christians: Train, train, train! — until you begin to daily think and act and love like Jesus.

To get
Spiritually fit,
You need to fit
Your life
Into God’s plan,
Not vice versa.

If Christ-followers
Would train
Like Navy Seals,
We’d not be discouraged
No matter how life feels.

Train yourself
To surrender
To Jesus
So you don’t hinder
His will.

Use your trials
For discipleship training,
Not for
Constant complaining.

Acquiring Bible knowledge
Without training
To do what you know
Is just a show.

Discipleship requires
That we train
To be led by God’s Spirit.
Grace is free to obtain,
But costly to sustain.

Athletes practice and train. The Bible says that Christians need to, too (1 Corinthians 9:25). Get training! A Christian who doesn’t passionately learn the Bible is like a football player who doesn’t know his team’s playbook.

If Christians would count and maintain their steps with Jesus the way many count their physical steps, they’d have much better spiritual health. Train yourself to stay intently and continually focused on the risen Jesus. Train yourself to quickly repent, to freely forgive, and to “pray without ceasing.”

When you tune in to God’s whispers, His breath (His Spirit) will tune up your heart to hunger and thirst for His presence and His will. The problem isn’t that God isn’t whispering, but that we’re not quietly focusing and intently listening. When we train ourselves to notice God’s whispers, the inner promtings of His living Word will transform us from the inside out.