cornerstone church
  • Home
  • About
    • Pastor
    • Elders
    • Deacons
    • Director of Women's Ministry
    • Membership >
      • Membership Covenant
    • Statement of Faith
    • Contact
  • Adult
    • Women's Ministries
    • Men's Ministries
  • Youth
    • Children's Ministries
    • Teen's Ministries
  • Missions
  • Resources
    • Bible Reading Plan
    • Calendar of Events
  • Sermons
  • Blogs
    • Blogs By Pastor Jeff Owen
    • enCOURAGEment for Women
BLOGS

enCOURAGEment for women

Disciplines of a Godly Woman - Training for Godlines

10/19/2017

 
Christian women, are you working hard toward becoming more Christ-like?  Is this high on your priority list?  It should be.  If we are authentic believers in Jesus, the Spirit cultivates in us a desire to please God and be more like our Savior.  Author Donald Whitney calls these “holy hungers”.  Indwelling longings (after conversion) to know and understand God more by reading the Bible, connecting with him through prayer, worship and other avenues of grace. 

If you are a true Christian the longing will be there whether it displays as a small flame or a blazing fire.  The issue we need to address is how to add fuel to this fire, sustain it and grow it over a lifetime.  We can do this through spiritual disciplines, by forming lifestyle habits (the means) that lead us to being more like Jesus (the end goal). 2 Peter 1:3 tells us, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”  When we are called to be his, we are also given everything we need to attain godliness.  This is certainly good news!

So why do we need to pursue godliness?  Keep reading.  After Peter lists qualities that include faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness and brotherly love, he then says this in verse 8: “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  God wants these qualities (which can all be summed up as being godly) to increase in us so that we are effective and fruitful in our lives.  This is gospel effectiveness and spiritual fruitfulness with the ultimate purpose being increased glory to God.

This is why Paul instructs Timothy to “train yourself for godliness” in 1 Timothy 4:7.  The Greek word used for “train” in the original text is gymnazo, which translates “to exercise naked”.  Yes, this gave me a smile when I looked it up but it makes great sense!  We derive our word “gymnasium” from this Greek word.  When we are working hard at something we throw off everything that may hinder us.  Just like the athletes competing in the nude in the first Olympics, they did not want anything in the way of giving their best in hopes of winning.  This idea is reflected for us in Hebrews 12:1, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,” 

We, as Christian women, need to lay aside the weights of this world and the sin that tries to entrap us and run the race God has set before us.  This is what pursuing godliness looks like, working hard to be more like Jesus.  “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God” (1 Timothy 4:9).  

There is great hope in this endeavor, better than any fitness goal we could pursue, “for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8.  The training for godliness we do in this life not only benefits us now, but it will also bring us reward for eternity - what a profound impact we are granted!

If this sounds like work to you, you are right.  It is.  Disciplined training should be intense (we shouldn’t think being like Jesus should be easy!).  What we need to ask ourselves is this: is it worth it?  You need to count the cost.  Truly pursuing godliness may bring about: persecution, division in families, the end of friendships, the cutting away of worldly habits and hobbies, giving up possessions, it also takes time, energy and dedication.  Is it worth it?  Sorry, that is the wrong question.  We have to ask, is He worth it?  Is Jesus worth you devoting your life’s pursuit to?  I will answer like Paul: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Phil 3:8).  Losing the world and gaining Christ.  Yes, he is worth it.
​
Ladies, I encourage you to follow me on this mission of holiness.  A purposeful quest to be more like Jesus as commanded in scripture.  I will be using the book, Disciplines of a Godly Woman, by Barbara Hughes as a framework for the next 16 blogs I post (this blog covered chapter 1).  We will hit on several topics such as the disciplines of prayer, of the mind, of contentment, of propriety, and of good deeds.  Think of these as pathways by which we can encounter God.  Follow along and let’s reap the benefits of training for godliness together.

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Adversity
    Anger
    Assurance
    Beauty
    Bible Study
    Biblical Womenhood
    Body Of Christ
    Children
    Christ Likeness
    Christ-Likeness
    Christmas
    Church
    Contentment
    Covenant
    Creation
    Death
    Depression
    Discipleship
    Easter
    Encouragement
    Endurance
    Evangelism
    Faith
    Forgiveness
    Giving
    Glory
    Gospel
    Happy
    Heaven
    Hell
    Holy
    Holy Spirit
    Homeschooling
    Hope
    Husband
    Jesus
    Joy
    Knowledge
    Love
    Marriage
    Missions
    Modesty
    Money
    Mother
    Obedience
    Prayer
    Preaching
    Purpose
    Relationship
    Resurrection
    Risk Taking
    Sanctification
    Satan
    Satisfaction
    Sin
    Singleness
    Sovereignty
    Spiritual Gifts
    Sufferring
    Thankful
    The Word Of God
    Time
    Treasure
    Trials
    Trust
    Wife
    Wives
    Worship

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
    • Pastor
    • Elders
    • Deacons
    • Director of Women's Ministry
    • Membership >
      • Membership Covenant
    • Statement of Faith
    • Contact
  • Adult
    • Women's Ministries
    • Men's Ministries
  • Youth
    • Children's Ministries
    • Teen's Ministries
  • Missions
  • Resources
    • Bible Reading Plan
    • Calendar of Events
  • Sermons
  • Blogs
    • Blogs By Pastor Jeff Owen
    • enCOURAGEment for Women