Training for Godliness

In my head I have an idea of the type of man I want to be. To be honest with you, he's a pretty awesome guy. He's patient, humble, funny without being crude, bold, capable, and loving. He's a pretty godly guy. And when I think about how I can get from being me to him, the only way i can imagine it happening is if the Lord zaps me and changes me into him.

But I've never known the Lord to be a character zapper, so I'm not sure why I imagine He'll work that way for me. 1 Timothy 4:7 says very clearly that I am to train myself for godliness. This means that God expects me to be a part of the change equation. The only problem I have with this is that it means that I'm accountable for my own character. I really don't like this plan.

So what does it mean to train myself for godliness? I guess, first of all, it means getting the basics down and the basics, sadly, is getting sin out of my life. All of it. This is where the fruit of the Spirit comes in because that's where self-control comes into the mix. This is important, because, to be honest with you, the sins I commit, I commit because I want to commit them. So part of training for godliness is saying no to the things that at least part of me wants to do. I'm sure that's a huge reason why the Lord gives us His Spirit; He knew we'd still want to sin even after we were His.

The fruit of the Spirit is an amazing arsenal that we use to battle for godliness. When I'm attacked and tempted to sin, it gives me weapons to use to attain victory. And there's a tool for every situation that could come: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the things we use to attain godliness. This is how I can become the man of great character I see in my head!