Steps in Self Training

Steps in Self Training
1. Personal Spiritual Life:
(a) Prayer – Have specific plans to improve on your prayer life. ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’ This is very much true about our prayer life also. If we need disciplined times of prayer, it goes along with discipline in other areas of our life. Consider the areas in which you need to bring discipline, if you want to improve upon your prayer life.
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying.
He fears nothing from prayer less studies, prayer less work and prayer less religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom but trembles when we pray” – Samuel Chadwick
(b) Bible – We approach the Word of God by the following five ways:
1. Reading - Rev. 1:3 - Plan to finish reading the Bible once in a year. If you plan properly for your travel and waiting times, you can finish a lot of reading. Have a handy Bible / New Testament or independent Books of the Bible with you always.
2. Listening – 2Tiim 3:14-17 – You can listen to the Word of God while it is being preached. Apart from it, the Bible is available in cassettes and CDs You can even load the Bible in your mobile phones. Even when you are busy with other works or during travel, you can be listening to the Word of God. “If there is a will, there is a way”.
3. Studying – 2 Tim. 2:15, 16, 17 – Plan for a systematic Personal Bible Study. Take the Gospels and small books of the Bible first and then you can go to the larger books. At least once a week, you must plan for a bulk time to study the Word.
4. Memorizing – Psalms 119:9, 11- Early morning can be the appropriate time to memorize the Scripture. Apart from that, if you can write down the Bible verses and keep them in your pocket or bag, in all the free times you can memorize the verses.
5. Meditating – Joshua 1:8 – Reading, Listening, Studying, and Memorizing – all these must go with Meditation. Then only we can make the Scripture appropriate for our lives.

We have to analyze whether we are satisfied by the way in which we are approaching the Word of God. If we think that some areas need improvement, consider the practical ways by which you can do it. Plan for regular time with the Word – not just in order to take GBS or to teach others, but to learn the truths for ourselves.

2. Personal overall development:
(a) Time management – Plan clearly for a daily schedule. You will not be able to attain perfection overnight. If you fail in not able to do what you have planned, consider the reasons and reschedule your daily life. If you cannot plan for one day, how will you be able to plan for your whole life? Moses the man of God prayed, “ Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” – Psalm 90:12
(b) Maintain an engagement Diary and a personal diary. Take time to write your engagements in the previous night or in the morning. In the night, check through the engagements and write your experiences and the lessons learnt on that day in your personal diary. You can maintain a Personal Journal.
(c) Take care of your physical body. Consider regular exercise, which will keep you alert and active. Maintain your body and your surroundings clean. Take care of your food – take healthy food, which is needed for your body. Have discipline in your eating habits. Discipline your sleeping hours also. Most of the people used of God and even the big secular leaders were early risers and had disciplined sleeping habits.
(d) Take care of your Appearance. You need to consciously decide about your dress, hairstyle, ornaments, etc. Be descent and presentable – 1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23, 31.
(e) Give quality time to your family. It is very important to develop our family as a witnessing unit of God’s love – 1 Timothy 3:4, 5; 5:8. Having a meaningful Family Prayer, sharing and prayer with your spouse and time with your children are some of the important things you have to develop consciously.
” The family that prays together stays together”

3. Updating ourselves about the changing world around us
(a) Be regular to read your newspaper. You can give time for this next to your Quiet Time. We need to listen to the Word of God and from the World of God. Dr. John Stott calls it as “Double listening”.
(b) As time permits, you can watch the TV news and read some secular and other religious magazines.
(c) Keep observing the world around you. Be sympathetic about the happenings in the world. Be involved in the social activities of the society around you, which do not contradict your values.
(d) As we are called to minister among the students, we need to try to learn “their language”. Then only we can understand their world and needs. This is possible when you are in touch with the local students around you.

4.Equipping ourselves to meet the challenges of the changing world
(a) Avail all the opportunity to build up sincere friendship with the people around. This includes our neighbours, vendors, co passengers, etc.
(b) Maintain a Prayer Diary with the names of all your friends and acquaintances and pray for them systematically.
(c) Study biographies of great people of God, and learn from their lives.
(d) Study books and gather web materials on Evangelism, Discipleship and Missions.
(e) Prayerfully look for opportunities to practice what you have learnt. Ask the Spirit of God to help you in those areas.

“Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
To this end I also labour, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” – Col. 1:28, 29

pjebarajuesi@hotmail.com October 2007