Twelve: A New Training Plan
When you trusted in jesus…
Everyone knows how important it is to train if you want to get better at something. As one popular saying goes, “It takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert.” This concept without ever feeling exhausted, frustrated or pushed to your limit, for a successful career. This training can be fun, but often it is the desired result. For instance, if you left every sports practice applies to almost everything in life, whether excelling at a sport, incredibly challenging, requiring discipline and sacrifice to achieve mastering a subject or developing the knowledge and skills most would agree your coach wasn’t doing their job. In military training, the entire point is to push you beyond your comfort zone, because that is where growth happens. When you trusted in Jesus, you received a New Training Plan, one for spiritual growth and development.
There are many things in the Christian faith that you should not—even cannot—work for or earn. The most important being your salvation, as the Bible says if our good deeds could save us, then Jesus died for no reason at all (Galatians 2:21). Much of our journey with God comes from a place of trusting Him for the things we are unable to do on our own, which is why Jesus said we need to come to God with childlike faith and dependence (Matthew 18:3). That said, there are many aspects of the Christian life where an investment of focused, quality time and practice can help you grow, improve and mature. This development includes both your words and deeds, along with your character and knowledge. Around this goal of personal spiritual development, the Bible says, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, 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” (1 Timothy 4:7-8). Here we see that although physical training is important, training in godliness is even more important, because it has an impact both on earth and into eternity.
So, what does this new training plan look like? It can take many forms, but it includes growing in your knowledge of God, His ways and His plans. It means developing your God-given gifts and talents, and practicing using them to bless and encourage others. It looks like deepening your relationship with God in prayer, worship and obedience, being led by His Spirit in your heart and mind. It looks like practicing how to share this New Life with others everywhere you go. It looks like using each moment to live more like Jesus.
This new training plan can occur almost anywhere, at formal church gatherings on Sunday morning or at a coffee shop with a group of friends. It can also occur at work, school, sports— really anywhere, as long as your heart and mind are invested in learning and training. Finally, just like with any training, don’t be discouraged if it’s difficult at first or you feel like you’re bad at it; you probably are. The point is we all start at this place of being unskilled, with almost everything in life, which is why we need training in the first place. So, embrace this new God-given Training Plan, that results in life transforming change, which follows you into eternity!