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You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
2 Peter 1:6
6 And [de] to [en] knowledge [gnosis]
temperance [egkrateia]; and [de] to [en] temperance [egkrateia] patience [hupomone]; and [de] to [en] patience [hupomone] godliness [eusebeia]; KJV-Interlinear
6 and in your knowledge,
self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance,
godliness;NASB
Once you have put all
of your distractions and prior beliefs away, and have begun to listen to the
teaching of the Word of God, then temperance, then patience, then godliness,
enter into your life.
But what exactly is temperance
and patience and godliness?Does this
mean that you become the perfect little angel we find in the children's
stories?Does this mean that you change
your lifestyle and stop drinking and gambling, and womanizing?Does this mean that you dress up in your
pretty little outfit and smile shyly when someone looks at you?
No.These things have nothing to do with your personal
lifestyle habits.Anyone, even an
unbeliever, can read the Bible and mimic a shy or liquor free lifestyle.Anyone can move to a monastery and sit life
out.
But what you do in life
has nothing to do with your spiritual growth.Your spiritual growth affects your daily life, not the other way around.
Self-control means
self-discipline, and self-discipline has to do with the consistency of your listening
and learning on a daily basis.Anyone
can go to church once a week or once a year, but it takes an exceptional person
to study daily, every day, every day of their life.Motivation has to enter into your life
somewhere along the way, and that motivation is the carrot, which God has
dangled before your eyes already.Grace
and peace.
You develop along the
way a desire, a drive in your life, such that nothing else, not even the little
things that may bother you along the way, will keep you from your daily study.
Life is full of annoying
little mosquitoes.These are the things
that bug you to death (so to speak).Things
that annoy you.But children are the
ones that get annoyed, not mature adults. He looked at me. She looked at
me. He just won t pick up after
himself. That sound, that color, that
thing, bothers me.
These are the little things
of life. If you allow them to bother you to the point that you are willing to
lose an infinite prize, what then happens to you when really big problems come
along, like losing a job, losing a family, losing a marriage, losing a home,
losing your health, etc., etc., etc.?
Self-discipline helps
you to get through the little things, the little distractions, early in your
spiritual life.
Then we add to the recipe
of your spiritual life, perseverance, which is endurance, which is the
willingness to stick with your studies, especially when life does not go well
with you, or your plans.Perseverance is
the ability to concentrate, to focus on what you are learning and just what
your priorities in life really are.
Are you reading the Bible
so you can receive a miracle, so you can be impressed, so you can be
entertained?Look around you.The days of parting waters have already
occurred.Jesus healed thousands and the
crowds still only wanted to be cured or entertained.Not many stood behind Him when He was
arrested.
The objective of your
spiritual life is to build up spiritual muscle in your soul, not act as a genie
when you happen to need some help.
The objective of your
spiritual life is to help you grow up.
And self-discipline, or
consistency in your daily studies, combined with concentration, produces obedience
to God.That means you begin to follow
the things you have learned.You confess
your sins, regularly, in order to get yourself into fellowship, so that your
studies, your prayers are more effective.
You begin committing
your heart, your will, your mind, your body, your finances, and your future to
God.
By loving Bible doctrine
more than anything else in our life.
By committing yourself
completely to Him and His plan for your life.
By pursuing knowledge
and wisdom through the study of the scriptures.
By recognizing that your
talents, your abilities, your gifts all come from Him, and are to His credit,
not yours.
By recognizing that all
that we have, comes from God, and that we are the managers of His gifts, not
the owners.
By understanding that your
future is not in this life, but in the next, and that this is your time for preparation,
not indifference.
This is the godliness
achieved, or the beginning of the transformation of your mind away from the
standards of the world, to the standards of God.
Now is the time to post a prayer.
End Of Lesson
Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.
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