Good Character Development!
Learning to be More and More Like Jesus!
We all profess that we want to be more and more like Jesus, but how many of us make the sacrifices to be more like Him? If we truly want to be like Jesus, we need to emulate His character, His walk, His talk, His responses, and His interactions with all those He engaged with in His earthly journey. The fact is that we can never grow beyond our character. It is the one element that restrains us from becoming all that we can imagine we want to be. In Paul’s writing to Timothy, he outlines some critical actions that fall within our mode of responsibility. As we examine this text, let us allow these changes to become a part of who we want to be by allowing them to impact on our lives and the way we walk, talk, think, decide, and interact with all those we come into touch with!
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1st Timothy 4:7-8 “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.”
Spiritual training without a proper foundation is disastrous. Never allow your basis of training to be the opinions of other people when God has provided a manual for us to study and train ourselves in getting to know Him intimately and fully. Physical training with direction and guidance is beneficial but there is more benefit in godliness because it gives us reason to live like Christ did here on earth, and it prepares us to be with Him in eternity. Every person in Christ, has the responsibility to train themselves in both spiritual and physical disciplines. It is truly amazing how Christians expect to become all that God wants them to be, when they only give a few hours on a Sunday morning to engage with Him and His Word, while other religions indoctrinate their young ones daily so that they have grounding in their faith.
It is important to know that our character impacts the lives of all who connect to us. In 1st Timothy 3:15-16, we are exhorted to be diligent in learning about God and emulating Him, so that others will notice how we live and how we reverence God and they will listen to us and try to emulate the way we live. Now character can be either ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ But we don’t want to dwell on our flawed character but we want to emulate the character of Jesus Christ. The only way that we can do that is to learn as much as possible about Him from God’s Word. Connect with the Holy Spirit and be obedient to His leading and guidance in our lives. No one can teach us more about Jesus than His Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 16:13, “But when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all the truth…”
The point that I am making is that if we truly want to learn more about the character of Jesus, then we will have to make some drastic changes about the way we live our lives. It embraces much discipline, sacrifice, patience, perseverance, and humility. If we truly love the Lord, then making the sacrifice to seriously know Him is of little consequence. If He is the object of our lives, then will allow nothing and no one to distract us from focusing on Jesus, who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. The problem lies in the fact that we say one thing and we mean another. That is the definition of hypocrisy! We are called to be true to our words, so that in following the Lord, our actions will speak louder than the words of our mouth. Many will see and recognize the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, alive in all that you say and do!