“Tips for Self-Discipline”

1. Start Small. Start with your room. Clean it, then keep it clean. When something is out of place, train yourself to put it where it belongs. Then extend the discipline of neatness to the rest of your home.

2. Be on time. That may not seem very spiritual, but it’s important. If you’re supposed to be somewhere at a specific time, be there on time. Develop the ability to discipline your desires, activities, and demands so that you can arrive on time.

3. Do the hardest job first. When you do that, you will find it easier to do the simpler tasks.

4. Organize your life. Plan the use of your time; don’t just react to circumstances. Use a calendar and make a daily list of things you need to accomplish. If you don’t control your time, everything else will.

5. Accept correction. Correction helps make you more disciplined because it shows you what you need to avoid. Don’t avoid criticism; accept it gladly.

6. Practice self-denial. Learn to say no to your feelings. Learn to do what you know to be right even if you don’t feel like doing it. Sometimes it’s even beneficial to deny yourself things that are acceptable to have, like a doughnut in the morning or dessert after dinner. Exercising such self-restraint helps you develop the habit of keeping other things under control. Cultivating discipline in the physical realm will help you become disciplined in your spiritual life.

7. Welcome responsibility. When you have an opportunity to do something that needs to be done, volunteer for it if you have talent in that area. Accepting responsibility can force you to org

AFTER SALVATION, WHAT?

You have made the most important decision of your life—at a moment in time you believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior, the perfect Person judged as a substitute for your sins. From that instant of faith alone in Christ alone, you have eternal life and share the destiny of Christ.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten [uniquely born] Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Heaven is guaranteed to every believer (1 Peter 1:4–5). But the quality and impact of the believer’s life on earth depend on his execution of God’s plan after salvation.

What is God’s plan for you following your personal faith in Christ? Learn and apply Bible doctrine and advance to spiritual maturity. The Bible reveals God’s person and plan. Bible doctrine is the content of the Word of God and is called the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Doctrine communicates absolute truth and is designed to become the measure or standard of your thinking.

When you learn who and what Christ is you can begin to apply His thinking. God commands you to think divine viewpoint so His gracious purpose can be fulfilled in your life (Romans 12:2).

God’s purpose for you after salvation calls for spiritual growth.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

You are kept alive on earth to fulfill your personal destiny by becoming a mature believer as an expression of God’s glory in both time and eternity. Only as a mature believer can you consistently glorify God and receive the highest and best that He has prepared for you (Ephesians 1:3–6).

You advance spiritually by consistently learning, thinking, and applying Bible doctrine. Persistent intake and application of doctrine enlarge your capacity for life, for love, for Christian service, for blessings, for happiness.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24–25)