I want to preface my final remarks on this study by re-examining two important principles. The first is defining our goal. I have been talking about change. But change into what? Who is the standard? Is there a standard to follow? Then a second principle of review is to reinforce the importance of developing a plan of action. Finally, we will look at perseverance.
First review principle is Defining the Goal
The purpose of the Christian way of life is to become growingly and increasingly more and more like Christ. This is not the popular view of the Christian way of life which is to go to church on Sunday and be a nice person the rest of the week. One of the pictures that Jesus gave to help us understand our walk with Him was discipleship. He often talked about our becoming disciples. A disciple is a learner, a student, a pupil. We are to be disciples of Jesus which means we have enrolled in the School of Christ. Jesus is the master teacher, and we sit at His feet to learn from Him. The call to enroll in the School of Christ is found in Luke 9:23:
And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
This is different than the call to salvation, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved." (Acts 16:31) After we trust in Christ as Savior, we are called to walk with Jesus or to follow Him. We follow Him when we enter His school. This is a very unusual school. Everything that the students learn is teaching them how to be like Christ. Jesus explained the goal of discipleship when he said, “It is enough for the disciple that he become like HIS TEACHER . . .". (Matthew 10:24)
The goal of the Christian Way of Life is to become more and more like Jesus. Paul speaks of this by telling us that God has a plan and that it is to conform all of us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). The Scripture uses a variety of metaphors to indicate this work of God:
To get the full benefit of this list of passages, take the time to look them up in your Bibles and read them.
This increase in a likeness to Christ occurs in four areas:
Why should I struggle to become a thoughtful, thankful person? I am accustomed to grumbling or taking others for granted. Why should I care? The reason I am concerned is that I want to be like Jesus. The vocabulary is different, but the principle is the same, put off the old man (grumbling and taking things for granted) or as Jesus said "let him deny himself" and put on the new man (becoming a thankful, thoughtful person) "take up the cross" to follow Jesus.
The Second Principle Of Review Is Develop A Plan Of Action
In the chapter on decisive commitment I suggested six steps in the development of a "plan of action". Review those notes and set down in writing what you are going to do to become more like the master. Failure to change is often due to lack of planning. FAIL TO PLAN, THEN PLAN TO FAIL! It is that simple. If you don't care where you are going in your spiritual life, then any road will take you there. In your planning don't forget to apply this principle. The goals you set must be daily goals. Be specific!
Discipline Yourself Daily
What leads to victory over sin? It is perseverance. Discipleship and following Jesus is not just a Sunday‑go‑to‑church and be‑a‑nice‑person thing; it is day by day, Monday through Sunday, walk with the Lord. This will require discipline.
Dr. Jay Adams, in his booklet "Godliness through Discipline" defines discipline as "sustained daily effort." Notice the goal is "Godliness." I prefer "Christlikeness." Dr. Adams explains why we often fail to change:
Let us single out one reason (perhaps the major reason). . . you may have sought and tried to obtain instant godliness. There is no such thing. Today we have instant pudding; instant coffee, instant houses shipped on trucks, instant everything. And we want instant godliness as well. We want somebody to give us three easy steps to godliness, and will take them next Friday and be godly. The trouble is godliness doesn't come that way." 1
I have been honest with you from the start of this study. I said change was hard, but not impossible. It is going to require discipline. This means we go to work everyday on our problem until we have victory. Change takes time. It takes work. It requires patience. As Dr. Adams says, "daily sustained effort". The truth is we are not good long distance runners. We often quit or give up just before we are about to have victory. When Paul is trying to explain how we are to defeat worry he says we do so through prayer (Philippians 4:6), proper thinking (Philippians 4:8), and PRACTICE, "The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you" Philippians 4:9.
Many times we fail to change because we give up too soon. We try for a day or two, maybe a week or two, but because we do not struggle daily, we fall short of the goal. Jesus said following Him requires a daily walk. Another Scripture teaches the same principle, "But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." (Hebrews 5:14)
Don't Give Up!
There are two very encouraging things that you should know and be thankful for:
First Encouragement:
You have the capacity for establishing habits. God has created us with a wonderful capacity to form habits. If we do something over and over again, this capacity makes it automatic. You have heard someone say "practice makes perfect." The idea is that you do it over and over, repeating the action until it becomes second nature. A habit is established when we do it without thinking, automatically, and with ease. If you do it long enough, you replace the habit of grumbling or taking others for granted with a thoughtful and thankful attitude.
Second Encouragement:
You don't have to do this alone. We will be successful if we rely on God's enabling power. When you develop your plan and stay with it, God promises to transform you by the power of the Holy Spirit into a likeness of Christ. The power of God often comes with our exercise of faith and obedience to do the will of God.
Notice these Bible passages:
For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
What an encouragement these passages give us! Dr. Adams wrote:
When we ask, "Lord, enable us, through following Christ daily in His Word, to become like Him, " the Holy Spirit "helps," us to do so. The Holy Spirit gives help when His people read His Word and then step out in faith to do as he says. He does not promise to strengthen us unless we do so; the power often comes in the doing."
We can change. We can be different. We can become more like Christ. "With God all things are possible. . . “Matthew 19:26. So let us persevere and fight the good fight. Let us put into practice the attitude of gratitude.
Endnotes:
1 Adams, Dr. Jay E., Godliness Through Discipline. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1978.I